WorldWideScience

Sample records for agricultural work settings

  1. Working group report on agriculture

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stewart, B.

    1991-01-01

    A summary is provided of the results from a working group investigating the implications of climatic change on agriculture in the Great Plains. The group investigated the current state of knowledge concerning basic understanding of climatic impacts, scales of analysis, impact model validation, lack of integrated modelling, and incomplete and incompatible data sets. Basic understanding of current spatial and temporal climatic variability and its impacts and implications for agricultural production, land resource sustainability, and farm management decisions is imprecise. There is little understanding of the magnitude of potential longer-term changes, timing, likely regional changes, or probability of change. Most models are unvalidated, and knowledge of potential carbon dioxide enrichment effects on crops is very uncertain and the effects are poorly understood. Research should be expanded to develop a better understanding of the critical thresholds and sensitivity of Great Plains agricultural production and economic systems. Holistic methodology should be implemented to integrate weather and climatic information with crop and environmental processes, farm level decision making, and local and regional economic conditions

  2. Financing of permanent working capital in agriculture

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vučković Branko

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, we attempted to present the problem of establishing adequate structure of financing medium agricultural enterprises and to point out the necessity for permanent working capital in those agricultural enterprises which can’t cover fixed assets, long-term placements and portion of inventories (raw material and spare parts, production in process with own equity and long-term sources of financing. For the purpose of analysing adequate structure of financing medium agricultural enterprises, we will use one of the most popular methods, such as case study and ratio analysis. Results of the research show that in primary agricultural production, next to standard long-term investment loans and short-term loans for investment in agricultural production, there is a necessity for financing in the permanent working capital which could assist continuity of production process and enable conditions for more profitable business in agriculture. It also should be noted that real and book value on this level of permanent working capital differs substantially.

  3. The association between chronic conditions and non-agricultural work productivity loss among the middle-aged Chinese population.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Wei; Sun, Huiying; Li, Xin

    2018-05-03

    To measure the association between different chronic conditions and non-agricultural work productivity loss among the middle-aged Chinese population. We used 2011, 2013 and 2015 data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. The study focused on middle-aged respondents who had the potential to work in the non-agricultural sector. Work productivity loss was measured by non-agricultural work participation and number of absent workdays among those conducting non-agricultural work. Seven different chronic conditions were considered. Heart diseases had the strongest association with lower work participation for men and women. Stomach/digestive disease and arthritis/rheumatism were conditions with the largest incremental absent workdays for men and women, respectively. The associations with non-agricultural work productivity loss varied by chronic conditions, outcomes, and sex. The findings will help motivate chronic condition prevention/management programs and set priorities.

  4. Making agriculture work for the poor

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Prowse, Martin; Chimhowu, Admos

    2007-01-01

    This paper summarises recent work on poverty, agriculture and land. First, we report on panel data analysis in five countries – Vietnam, Uganda, India, Nicaragua and Ethiopia. We focus on rural exits from poverty, their relation with agricultural growth trends, and the contingent factors...

  5. newspapers' agricultural agenda setting and extension agents ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    p2333147

    Keywords: Newspapers', agricultural, extension agents' agenda setting. ABSTRACT ... from the priorities of political or other interest groups to the news priorities of media ... people. The questions that arise are-: what are the sources operating for ... The ADPs presently adopt the training and visit (T & V) system of extension.

  6. Agricultural Health and Safety

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... that occur while living, working, or visiting agricultural work environments (primarily farms) are considered agricultural injuries, whether or ... of Labor's Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) supports safe and healthful working conditions by setting and enforcing standards and by ...

  7. DETERMINANTS OF CHANGES IN WORK PROFITABILITY IN POLISH AGRICULTURE IN 2004-2013

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zbigniew GOLAS

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available The main purpose of this work is to analyse the changes in work profitability in Polish agriculture. The analysis is based on the Economic Accounts for Agriculture, i.e. the applicable in the EU harmonised financial statement, which enables the analysis of the economic situation in agriculture according to uniform rules. The basis for the research have been the proposed systems of work profitability indicators and factor analysis (the logarithm method. The research has proven that in the post-accession period work profitability in agriculture increased in real terms on annual average by about 4,47%, and in 2013 in comparison to 2004, work profitability was higher in real terms by almost 60%. In the light of the factor analysis the main determinant of changes in work profitability in the domestic agriculture was the increase in work productivity and production subsidies.

  8. Working Conditions of Agricultural Workers: A Reflection of Socio-economic Status

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    B.R.K. Sinha

    2010-11-01

    Full Text Available Working conditions of agricultural workers, like industrial, are one of the burning issues in a developing region. It is related to agricultural activities of the workers and their socio-economic status. Working conditions may be both favourable and unfavourable. Those working conditions which are unfavourable to health may be considered as occupational hazards or as a part of occupational environment. It is generally observed that a large section of the agricultural workers remains engaged in agricultural practices at the time of hunger, thirst, pregnancy (women and even despite their unpleasant state of health, both mental and physical. They also continue to work for more than the prescribed standard hours and also having half-fed. These are not positive or favourable working conditions to their health as they normally cause general weakness, fatigue, stomach disorder, dizziness, headache, loss of energy and some other similar physical, mental and psychological problems. The major driving forces behind as such adverse working conditions and its consequences are the pressure of work, pressure of land owners and of timely completion of works, shortage of manpower, psychological attitude, ignorance, weather constraints, poverty, illiteracy, lack of work related health awareness, lower social and economic status, etc. Such forces compel the workers to be engaged in their agricultural practices under the above circumstance. Adverse working conditions of agricultural workers vary widely with reference to space, time, activities, demographics, society, economy and consequently affect both the mental and physical, social and psychological conditions of the agricultural workers. Persons in varying number in the age groups from 15-34 and 35-49 to 60 & + year were reported working under different types of undesirable working conditions. The people from the S.C. and S.T. categories are the major sufferers as most of them continue their work during

  9. Work-related agricultural fatalities in Australia, 1982-1984.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Erlich, S M; Driscoll, T R; Harrison, J E; Frommer, M S; Leigh, J

    1993-06-01

    Work-related agricultural fatalities were examined as part of a larger population-based study of all work-related fatalities in Australia in the period 1982-1984. A total of 257 farm-related fatalities were identified, of which 223 were deaths of persons in the employed civilian labor force (19.4 deaths per 100,000 persons per year) and 34 were deaths of children less than 15 years of age. The fatality incidence was higher among men, older age groups, and nonmanagers in general and in certain occupations in particular. Mobile mechanical equipment (particularly tractors) was the main fatal agent, roll-overs accounting for many of the fatalities. Better provision of information to agricultural workers, improvements in compliance to and enforcement of legislation, and changes in farming work practices are recommended to improve the safety of farms and farm work.

  10. Work and empowerment: women and agriculture in South India.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rao, Smriti

    2011-01-01

    This article explores the implications of women's work in agriculture in Telangana, a region in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. I suggest that higher capital costs for cultivators' post-liberalisation increased the pressure to contain wage costs in a region where women form the majority of the agricultural wage labour force. Under such conditions, when women perform both own-cultivation as well as agricultural wage work in the fields of others, they face pressure to restrict bargaining for higher wages, contributing to a widening gender wage gap. To the extent that wages shape intra-household bargaining power, the empowering effect of workforce participation for such women would thus be blunted. From available NSS data I provide some preliminary evidence in support of this argument.

  11. A National Study of Work Characteristics and Work- Family Conflict among Secondary Agricultural Educators

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sorensen, Tyson J.; McKim, Aaron J.; Velez, Jonathan J.

    2017-01-01

    Data from a random sample of secondary school agriculture teachers in the United States were utilized to explore work characteristics and their relationship to work-family conflict, specifically how the work role interfered with the family role. Nine workplace characteristics (i.e., salary, work hours per work week, weekend work hours, years of…

  12. Creating optimized machine working patterns on agricultural fields

    OpenAIRE

    Mark Spekken

    2015-01-01

    In the current agricultural context, agricultural machine unproductivity on fields and their impacts on soil along pathways are unavoidable. These machines have direct and indirect costs associated to their work in field, with non-productive time spent in manoeuvres when these are reaching field borders; likewise, there is a double application of product when machines are covering headlands while adding farm inputs. Both issues aggravate under irregular field geometry. Moreover, unproductive ...

  13. Falls From Agricultural Machinery: Risk Factors Related to Work Experience, Worked Hours, and Operators' Behavior.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Caffaro, Federica; Roccato, Michele; Micheletti Cremasco, Margherita; Cavallo, Eugenio

    2018-02-01

    Objective We investigated the risk factors for falls when egressing from agricultural tractors, analyzing the role played by worked hours, work experience, operators' behavior, and near misses. Background Many accidents occur within the agricultural sector each year. Among them, falls while dismounting the tractor represent a major source of injuries. Previous studies pointed out frequent hazardous movements and incorrect behaviors adopted by operators to exit the tractor cab. However, less is known about the determinants of such behaviors. In addition, near misses are known to be important predictors of accidents, but they have been under-investigated in the agricultural sector in general and as concerns falls in particular. Method A questionnaire assessing dismounting behaviors, previous accidents and near misses, and participants' relation with work was administered to a sample of Italian tractor operators ( n = 286). Results A mediated model showed that worked hours increase unsafe behaviors, whereas work experience decreases them. Unsafe behaviors in turn show a positive association with accidents, via the mediation of near misses. Conclusions We gave a novel contribution to the knowledge of the chain of events leading to fall accidents in the agricultural sector, which is one of the most hazardous industries. Applications Besides tractor design improvements, preventive training interventions may focus on the redesign of the actual working strategies and the adoption of engaging training methods in the use of machinery to optimize the learning of safety practices and safe behaviors.

  14. Why Agriculture Teachers Leave: A National Examination of Turnover Intentions and Work-Family Conflict

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sorensen, Tyson J.; McKim, Aaron J.; Velez, Jonathan J.

    2016-01-01

    Using data from a random sample of secondary school agriculture teachers in the United States, this study explored the work-family conflict and turnover intentions of agriculture teachers. Additionally, this study sought to determine the relationship between work-family conflict and turnover intentions among agriculture teachers. Work-family…

  15. A National Study of Work-Family Balance and Job Satisfaction among Agriculture Teachers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sorensen, Tyson J.; McKim, Aaron J.; Velez, Jonathan J.

    2016-01-01

    This national study sought to extend previous research on the work-family balance (WFB) ability of secondary school agriculture teachers. We utilized data from a simple random sample of agriculture teachers to explore the relationships between work and family characteristics, WFB ability, and job satisfaction. Work role characteristics of interest…

  16. Action-oriented use of ergonomic checkpoints for healthy work design in different settings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kogi, Kazutaka

    2007-12-01

    Recent experiences in the action-oriented use of ergonomic checkpoints in different work settings are reviewed. The purpose is to know what features are useful for healthy work design adjusted to each local situation. Based on the review results, common features of ergonomic checkpoints used in participatory training programs for improving workplace conditions in small enterprises, construction sites, home work and agriculture in industrially developing countries in Asia are discussed. These checkpoints generally compile practical improvement options in a broad range of technical areas, such as materials handling, workstation design, physical environment and work organization. Usually, "action checklists" comprising the tiles of the checkpoints are used together. A clear focus is placed on readily applicable low-cost options. Three common features of these various checkpoints appear to be important. First, the checkpoints represent typical good practices in multiple areas. Second, each how-to section of these checkpoints presents simple improvements reflecting basic ergonomic principles. Examples of these principles include easy reach, fewer and faster transport, elbow-level work, coded displays, isolated or screened hazards and shared teamwork. Third, the illustrated checkpoints accompanied by corresponding checklists are used as group work tools in short-term training courses. Many practical improvements achieved are displayed in websites for inter-country work improvement networks. It is suggested to promote the use of locally adjusted checkpoints in various forms of participatory action-oriented training in small-scale workplaces and in agriculture particularly in industrially developing countries.

  17. Work and technological innovation in organic agriculture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tereso, M J A; Abrahão, R F; Gemma, S F B; Montedo, U B; Menegon, N L; Guarneti, J E; Ribeiro, I A V

    2012-01-01

    Organic agriculture is a sustainable cultivation ecologically, economically and socially. Several researches in organic agriculture have been made from technical perspectives, economic traits or related to ecological aspects. There are practically no investigations into the nature of the technology used in organic agriculture, especially from an ergonomic perspective. From the activity analysis, this study aimed to map the technology used in the production of organic vegetables. Properties producing organic vegetables were selected representing the State of São Paulo. It was applied an instrument (questionnaire and semi-structured interview) with their managers and it was made visual records to identify adaptations, innovations and technological demands that simultaneously minimize the workload and the difficulties in performing the tasks and increase work productivity. For some of the technological innovations a digital scanner was used to generate a virtual solid model to facilitate its redesign and virtual prototyping. The main results show that organic farmers have little technology in product form. The main innovations that enable competitive advantage or allow higher labor productivity occur in the form of processes, organization and marketing.

  18. DETERMINANTS OF WORK PROFABILITY CHANGES IN POLISH AGRICULTURE IN YEARS 2004-2013

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zbigniew Gołaś

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available The main goal of the work is to analyse the changes in the work profitability of Polish agriculture. The analysis was based on the Economic Accounts for Agriculture, i.e. the current EU harmonized financial statements allowing for analysis of the economic situation in agriculture according to uniform principles. The basis of the research was formed by proposed indicator systems operating profitability and factor analysis (method logarithm. Studies have shown that in the post-accession period, the profitability in agriculture was increasing in real terms on average by 4.47%, and in 2013 in relation to 2004, the level of profitability of labour was higher in real terms by almost 60%. In the light of the factor analysis, as the main determinants of changes in operating profitability in the domestic agriculture, the increase in labour productivity and production subsidies will be indicated.

  19. Optimal set of agri-environmental indicators for the agricultural sector of Czech Republic

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jiří Hřebíček

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Current trends of agri-environmental indicators evaluation (i.e., the measurement of environmental performance and farm reporting are discussed in the paper focusing on the agriculture sector. From the perspective of agricultural policy, there are two broad decisions to make: which indicators to recommend and promote to farmers, and which indicators to collect to assist in agriculture policy-making. We introduce several general approaches for indicators to collect to assist in policy-making (European Union, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in the first part of our paper and given the differences in decision-making problems faced by these sets of decision makers. We continue in the second part of the paper with a proposal of indicators to recommend and promote to farmers in the Czech Republic.

  20. Exposure of Senior School Students to Practical Work in Agriculture ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Practical work facilitates the process of acquisition of basic knowledge and practical skills that prepare students for occupation in Agriculture. The West African Examination Council's policy with respect to Science Subjects stipulates that practical work should form the basis of teaching their syllabus (WAEC Syllabus, ...

  1. On Rural Financial and Accounting Work under the Background of Rapid Agricultural Economic Development

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    Yaozheng; TANG

    2013-01-01

    Under the background of rapid agricultural economic development,rural financial and accounting work is of great significance. From rural accounting management system,rural accountant allocation and rural accounting training,this paper analyzes current situations of rural accounting work in China. In rural financial and accounting work,there are following problems. ( 1) Accounting behavior is not standard,and basic accounting work is to be further strengthened; ( 2) Internal control is not perfect and implementation of supervision mechanism is formalized; ( 3) Few people manipulate accounting behavior and accounting information is not transparent. In view of these problems,it puts forward countermeasures for improving rural accounting work: ( 1) establishing perfect agricultural accounting system; ( 2) regulating fund management order; ( 3) promoting computerized agricultural financial and accounting work; ( 4) improving professional and comprehensive quality of rural accountants.

  2. Extracurricular Activities Targeted towards Increasing the Number of Engineers Working in the Field of Precision Agriculture

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Larsen, Leon Bonde; Stark Olsen, Kent; Ahrenkiel, Linda

    SERVICE ROBOTS in precision agriculture have the potential to ensure a more competitive and sustainable production, but the lack of skilled engineers within this area is limiting the industry’s ability to develop new and innovative agricultural technology products. Part of the reason...... is that engineers and scientists have little knowledge about agricultural technology, and they therefore choose to work in other domains. It is hypothesised that introducing engineering students to precision agriculture through practical work with small-scale service robots will increase their interest...... in agriculture and agricultural technology. This article presents the results of an interdisciplinary extracurricular activity for first year engineering students carried out in the Fall 2012 at the University of Southern Denmark. The case was based on practical group-work centered around an agricultural mobile...

  3. Research of Consumption of Biodiesel in Different Working Operations in the System of Precision Agriculture

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marek Angelovič

    2012-05-01

    Full Text Available The aim of study was to research the consumption of biodiesel in various working operations of the tractor John Deere 8230 with trailer and plow under field conditions. Biodiesel was made from agricultural crop of oilseed rape according to etherification. Experimental measurements were made on land of the Slovak University of Agriculture, in Kolíňany, Slovakia. The metering device was used EDMeco recorder and an electronic flow meter of the actual consumption of biodiesel. The measuring system was installed in the fuel system John Deere tractor, the 8230. On the base of the obtained results we can conclude that at the transportation of the tractor with trailer Mega 20 was the average hourly consumption of 15.43 liters of biodiesel. At the plowing with set of tractor and rotating 7-mouldboard plow Ostroj Opava, the average hourly consumption was of 33.93 liters of biodiesel.

  4. Agricultural Returns to Labor and the Origins of Work Ethics

    OpenAIRE

    Fouka, Vasiliki; Schlaepfer, Alain

    2017-01-01

    We examine the historical determinants of differences in preferences for work across societies today. Our hypothesis is that a society’s work ethic depends on the role that labor has played in it historically, as an input in agricultural production: societies that have for centuries depended on the cultivation of crops with high returns to labor effort will work longer hours and develop a preference for working hard. We formalize this prediction in the context of a model of endogenous prefere...

  5. Agricultural response functions to changes in carbon, temperature, and water based on the C3MP data set

    Science.gov (United States)

    Snyder, A.; Ruane, A. C.; Phillips, M.; Calvin, K. V.; Clarke, L.

    2017-12-01

    Agricultural yields vary depending on temperature, precipitation/irrigation conditions, fertilizer application, and CO2 concentration. The Coordinated Climate-Crop Modeling Project (C3MP), conducted as a component of the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP), organized a sensitivity experiments across carbon-temperature-water (CTW) space across 1100 management conditions in 50+ countries, sampling 15 crop species and 20 crop models. Such coordinated sensitivity tests allow for the building of emulators of yield response to changes in CTW values, allowing rapid estimation of yield changes from the types of climate changes projected by the climate modeling community. The resulting emulator may be used to supply agricultural responses to climate change in any user-defined scenario, rather than the restriction to the RCPs in many past works. We present the resulting emulators built from the C3MP output data set for use in the Global Change Assessment Model (GCAM) integrated assessment model that allows for the co-evolution of socioeconomic development, greenhouse gas emissions, climate change, and agricultural sector ramifications. C3MP-based emulators may be of use in designing agricultural impact studies in other IAMs, and we place them in the context of past crop modeling efforts, including the Challinor et al. Meta-analysis, the AgMIP Wheat team results, the AgMIP Global Gridded Crop Model Intercomparison (GGCMI) fast-track modeling results, and the MACSUR impact response surface results.

  6. An estimate of intensity of windy resuspension during imitation of agricultural work

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Drugachenok, M.A.; Kudryashov, V.P.; Mironov, V.P.

    1996-01-01

    Estimation of intensity of wind rising at imitation of agricultural works. During special experiment for imitation of the agricultural activity which has been carried out in the summer of 1993, the characteristics of radioactive contamination of a surface of ground, density of radioactive fallout, concentration of radionuclides and their distribution on height of surface layer of atmosphere are measured. The value of intensity of secondary wind rising in conditions of dry weather are received. At mechanical influence on ground the intensity of wind rising exceeds on 3-4 order a background value of this parameter which are (4-6)*10 -11 1/c. The received numerical value of intensity of wind rising can be used for forecasting of inhalation intake of radionuclides in organism of the person during agricultural works. 3 tabs., 10 refs

  7. Application of fuzzy set theory for integral assessment of agricultural products quality

    Science.gov (United States)

    Derkanosova, N. M.; Ponomareva, I. N.; Shurshikova, G. V.; Vasilenko, O. A.

    2018-05-01

    The methodology of integrated assessment of quality and safety of agricultural products, approbated by the example of indicators of wheat grain in relation to the provision of consumer properties of bakery products, was developed. Determination of the level of quality of the raw ingredients will allow direct using of agricultural raw materials for food production, taking into account ongoing technology, types of products, and, respectively, rational use of resource potential of the agricultural sector. The mathematical tool of the proposed method is a fuzzy set theory. The fuzzy classifier to evaluate the properties of the grain is formed. The set of six indicators normalized by the national standard is determined; values are ordered and represented by linguistic variables with a trapeziform membership function; the rules for calculation of membership functions are presented. Specific criteria values for individual indicators in shaping the quality of the finished products are considered. For one of the samples of wheat grain values of membership; functions of the linguistic variable "level" for all indicators and the linguistic variable "level of quality" were calculated. It is established that the studied sample of grain obtains the 2 (average) level of quality. Accordingly, it can be recommended for the production of bakery products with higher requirements for the structural-mechanical properties bakery and puff pastry products hearth bread and flour confectionery products of the group of hard dough cookies and crackers

  8. Combining Work and School: The Dynamics of Girls' Involvement in Agricultural Work in Andhra Pradesh, India

    Science.gov (United States)

    Morrow, Virginia; Vennam, Uma

    2010-01-01

    Child labour in India has long been the focus of research, policy concern and intervention. This article presents an analysis of children's involvement in agricultural work, particularly cottonseed production, drawing on evidence gathered for Young Lives in 2007 and 2008. In parts of Andhra Pradesh, children work in cotton fields for two or three…

  9. Impact of vegetable crop agriculture on anopheline agressivity and malaria transmission in urban and less urbanized settings of the South region of Cameroon.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Akono, Patrick Ntonga; Mbida, Jean Arthur Mbida; Tonga, Calvin; Belong, Philippe; Ngo Hondt, Odette Etoile; Magne, Gaëlle Tamdem; Peka, Marie Florence; Lehman, Leopold Gustave

    2015-05-28

    The use of inland valley swamps for vegetable crop agriculture contributes to food security in urban and less urbanized settings in Africa. The impact of this agriculture on aggressive mosquitoes' diversity and malaria transmission in central Africa is poorly documented. This study is aimed at assessing the impact of vegetable crop agriculture on these entomological parameters in urban and less urbanized settings of the forest area, south of Cameroon. The human bait technique was used for the capture of aggressive mosquitoes from January to December 2012. For three consecutive days each month, captures were performed on volunteers in hydro-agricultural and river bank sites of Akonolinga and Yaoundé. Physico-chemical characteristics of mosquito breeding sites were recorded. Molecular alongside morpho-taxonomic techniques were used for the identification of mosquito species; ELISA test was used to reveal Plasmodium falciparum infected mosquitoes through the detection of CSP. Mosquito diversity, aggressivity and malaria transmission in sites and settings were determined and compared. Biting rates were higher in hydro-agricultural sites of less urbanized and urban settings (31.8 b/p/n and 28.6 b/p/n respectively) than in river banks sites (6.83 b/p/n and 3.64 b/p/n respectively; p agricultural sites 2 species were captured in the urban setting versus 4 in the less urbanized setting, meanwhile in river bank sites, 3 species were captured in the urban setting versus 4 species in the less urbanized setting. An. nili s.s. was found in river banks only. An. hancocki was not found to insure Plasmodium falciparum Welch transmission. EIR in hydro-agricultural sites varied from 1.86 ib/p/n (urban area) to 2.13 ib/p/n (less urbanized area) with higher rates in April/May and August. Overall, EIR was higher in less urbanized areas (p agriculture (p = 0.2). These results highlight the need for specific preventive measures that take into account the ecological peculiarities

  10. Alternative Work Schedules in Office and Nonoffice Work Settings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kirk, Raymond J.; Barton, H. David

    A rapidly growing change in the workplace is the replacement of a fixed work schedule with a variety of alternative work schedules (AWS), including both flexible and compressed schedules. Experimenting organizations (N=901) evaluated one of four major categories of AWS in office and nonoffice settings, i.e., a flexible 8-hour day;…

  11. The Black Swans of Agricultural Education: A Glimpse into the Lived Experiences That Shape Urban Agricultural Educators' Meaning in Work

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roberts, Richie; Ramsey, Jon W.

    2017-01-01

    Urban agricultural educators face a number of unique challenges in performing their job duties. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to understand the essence of urban agricultural educators' meaning in their work by exploring their lived experiences. In this study, the essence emerged in the form of a metaphor: A Black Swan. The black swan…

  12. [Mortality from work-related accidents among agricultural workers in Brazil, 2000-2010].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ferreira-de-Sousa, Flávia Nogueira; Santana, Vilma Sousa

    2016-01-01

    This study estimated annual mortality from work-related injuries in agriculture in Brazil, 2000-2010. The Mortality Information System (SIM) was used to identify cases. Missing data for occupation and work-related injuries were retrieved through other available individual records and incorporated into total cases. Population data were obtained from the official censuses. A total of 8,923 deaths from work-related injuries were identified, of which 44.8% were located by data retrieval. In the year 2000, estimated crude mortality from work-related injuries was 6.4/100,000 workers, increasing to 8.1/100,000 in 2003 and declining to 7.3/100,000 in 2010. The leading circumstances of deaths in men involved "riding animals or using animal-drawn vehicles", whereas pesticide poisoning was the leading cause in women. Overall mortality from work-related injuries in agriculture was low when compared to that of other countries, suggesting residual under-recording despite data retrieval and thus calling for quality improvement in records. Gender-sensitive preventive measures are necessary.

  13. Controls on denitrification potential in nitrate-rich waterways and riparian zones of an irrigated agricultural setting.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Webster, Alex J; Groffman, Peter M; Cadenasso, Mary L

    2018-02-21

    Denitrification, the microbial conversion of NO 3 - to N gases, is an important process contributing to whether lotic and riparian ecosystems act as sinks for excess NO 3 - from agricultural activities. Though agricultural waterways and riparian zones have been a focus of denitrification research for decades, almost none of this research has occurred in the irrigated agricultural settings of arid and semi-arid climates. In this study, we conducted a broad survey of denitrification potential in riparian soils and channel sediment from 79 waterway reaches in the irrigated agricultural landscape of California's Central Valley. With this approach, we sought to capture the wide range of variation that arose from diverse waterway management and fluctuating flow conditions, and use this variation to identify promising management interventions. We explored associations of denitrification potentials with surface water NO 3 - -N, organic matter, flow conditions, vegetation cover, near-channel riparian bank slope, and channel geomorphic features using generalized linear mixed models. We found strong associations of sediment denitrification potentials with reach flow conditions, which we hypothesize was the result of variation in microbial communities' tolerance to dry-wet cycles. Denitrification potentials in riparian soils, in contrast, did not appear affected by flow conditions, but instead were associated with organic matter, vegetation cover, and bank slope in the riparian zone. These results suggest a strong need for further work on how denitrification responds to varying flow conditions and dry-wet cycles in non-perennial lotic ecosystems. Our findings also demonstrate that denitrifier communities respond to key features of waterway management, which can therefore be leveraged to control denitrification through a variety of management actions. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

  14. Farm Work-Related Injuries and Risk Factors in South Korean Agriculture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Hyocher; Räsänen, Kimmo; Chae, Hyeseon; Kim, Kyungsu; Kim, Kyungran; Lee, Kyungsuk

    2016-01-01

    Agriculture is known to be a risk-filled industry in South Korea, as it is worldwide. The aims of this study were to identify the magnitude of farm work-related injuries and evaluate the association between injury and possible risk factors. Farmers, including farm members (N = 16,160), were surveyed. After excluding 7 subjects with missing data in questions about injury, 16,153 farmer responses were used for the analysis. Of the 16,153 farmers, 3.6% answered having at least one farm work-related injury requiring outpatient treatment or hospitalization during 2012. The proportion of injured men (4.3%) was 1.5 times higher than women (2.9%). From an age perspective, the proportion was 1.3% of those aged 49 or below, 2.7% of those aged 50-59, 4.2% of those aged 60-69, 4.2% of those aged 70-79, and 3.1% of those aged 80 or above. We used a multivariate logistic regression analysis with a stepwise model (forward) for risk factors (gender, age, farm ownership, farm type, work years in agriculture, work months during 2012, night work experience, and work experience under the influence of alcohol). The increased risk of farm work-related injuries significantly remained associated with age, farm ownership, and experience of night work. Further studies should be conducted to consistently identify injury characteristics, especially for old farmers, considering the crop cultivation in Asian countries.

  15. Child work in agriculture in West Bengal, India: assessment of musculoskeletal disorders and occupational health problems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Das, Banibrata; Ghosh, Tirthankar; Gangopadhyay, Somnath

    2013-01-01

    Children are universally considered to be the most important asset for any nation. The main aims of the present study were 1) to investigate the causation of discomfort related to working postures 2) to assess the physiological strain among the child farmers and 3) to assess the thermal stress during work in an agricultural field. For this study, 120 child agricultural workers and 120 control subjects aged 10-16 years were selected randomly, and a detailed posture analysis was performed among them by REBA and OWAS methods. The Modified Nordic Questionnaire was applied to assess the discomfort felt among both groups of workers. Physiological assessment of workload was carried out by recording the heart rate and blood pressure of the workers prior to work and just after work in the field. Child agricultural workers suffered from pain especially in the low back (98%), knees (88%), hands (82%), shoulder (77%) and neck (68%). Among the agricultural activities in potato cultivation, the child potato workers, felt discomfort during spading (99%), sprinkling water (90%) and picking crops (87%). The post-activity heart rate of the child agricultural workers was 170.1 beats/min, whereas the systolic and diastolic blood pressures were 129.0 and 67.0 mm/Hg respectively. Most of the agricultural activities in potato cultivation were strenuous ones that affect the children, who suffered from acute pain and discomfort for a long period of time, which mainly hampers and restricts their education.

  16. Assessing the potential impacts of a revised set of on-farm nutrient and sediment 'basic' control measures for reducing agricultural diffuse pollution across England.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Collins, A L; Newell Price, J P; Zhang, Y; Gooday, R; Naden, P S; Skirvin, D

    2018-04-15

    The need for improved abatement of agricultural diffuse water pollution represents cause for concern throughout the world. A critical aspect in the design of on-farm intervention programmes concerns the potential technical cost-effectiveness of packages of control measures. The European Union (EU) Water Framework Directive (WFD) calls for Programmes of Measures (PoMs) to protect freshwater environments and these comprise 'basic' (mandatory) and 'supplementary' (incentivised) options. Recent work has used measure review, elicitation of stakeholder attitudes and a process-based modelling framework to identify a new alternative set of 'basic' agricultural sector control measures for nutrient and sediment abatement across England. Following an initial scientific review of 708 measures, 90 were identified for further consideration at an industry workshop and 63 had industry support. Optimisation modelling was undertaken to identify a shortlist of measures using the Demonstration Test Catchments as sentinel agricultural landscapes. Optimisation selected 12 measures relevant to livestock or arable systems. Model simulations of 95% implementation of these 12 candidate 'basic' measures, in addition to business-as-usual, suggested reductions in the national agricultural nitrate load of 2.5%, whilst corresponding reductions in phosphorus and sediment were 11.9% and 5.6%, respectively. The total cost of applying the candidate 'basic' measures across the whole of England was estimated to be £450 million per annum, which is equivalent to £52 per hectare of agricultural land. This work contributed to a public consultation in 2016. Copyright © 2017 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  17. Relationship between concentrations of microbiological agents in the air of agricultural settings and occurrence of work-related symptoms in exposed persons

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Barbara Mackiewicz

    2015-09-01

    related symptoms and the concentration of total airborne microorganisms (R=0.748555; P=0.020317, mesophilic bacteria (R=0.7573; P=0.029548, Gram-negative bacteria (R=0.835938; P=0.019129, and endotoxins (R=0.705356; P=0.03378. The correlations between the concentrations of thermophilic actinomycetes and fungi, on one side, and frequency of work-related symptoms on the other, did not attain the threshold of significance (P=0.087049 and P=0.062963, respectively. Results of the meta-analysis confirm harmful health effects of the total airborne microorganisms, total airborne mesophilic bacteria, airborne Gram-negative bacteria, and airborne bacterial endotoxin on the occupationally-exposed agricultural workers, and indicate a need for the establishment of internationally recognized occupational exposure limits for these microbial agents.

  18. On the Degree of Participant Commitment in Non-Work Settings

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Klokmose, Clemens Nylandsted; Korn, Matthias

    -work. In work settings the role of peers is well defined, whereas in non-work settings participating peers are more elusive—like the familiar stranger at the parents’ evening at school. Furthermore, work practices are institutionalized and it is possible to enforce people to become aware of the participation...

  19. Impact of Long Farm Working Hours on Child Safety Practices in Agricultural Settings

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marlenga, Barbara; Pahwa, Punam; Hagel, Louise; Dosman, James; Pickett, William

    2010-01-01

    Objectives: To characterize working hours of adult farm owner-operators and their spouses by season, and to examine associations between working hours and farm safety practices affecting children. Methods: We conducted a secondary analysis of cross-sectional survey data collected as part of an existing study of injury and its determinants.…

  20. Determine metrics and set targets for soil quality on agriculture residue and energy crop pathways

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ian Bonner; David Muth

    2013-09-01

    There are three objectives for this project: 1) support OBP in meeting MYPP stated performance goals for the Sustainability Platform, 2) develop integrated feedstock production system designs that increase total productivity of the land, decrease delivered feedstock cost to the conversion facilities, and increase environmental performance of the production system, and 3) deliver to the bioenergy community robust datasets and flexible analysis tools for establishing sustainable and viable use of agricultural residues and dedicated energy crops. The key project outcome to date has been the development and deployment of a sustainable agricultural residue removal decision support framework. The modeling framework has been used to produce a revised national assessment of sustainable residue removal potential. The national assessment datasets are being used to update national resource assessment supply curves using POLYSIS. The residue removal modeling framework has also been enhanced to support high fidelity sub-field scale sustainable removal analyses. The framework has been deployed through a web application and a mobile application. The mobile application is being used extensively in the field with industry, research, and USDA NRCS partners to support and validate sustainable residue removal decisions. The results detailed in this report have set targets for increasing soil sustainability by focusing on primary soil quality indicators (total organic carbon and erosion) in two agricultural residue management pathways and a dedicated energy crop pathway. The two residue pathway targets were set to, 1) increase residue removal by 50% while maintaining soil quality, and 2) increase soil quality by 5% as measured by Soil Management Assessment Framework indicators. The energy crop pathway was set to increase soil quality by 10% using these same indicators. To demonstrate the feasibility and impact of each of these targets, seven case studies spanning the US are presented

  1. Urban Agriculture Program Planning Guide.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hemp, Paul E.; Ethridge, Jim

    Urban agriculture may be defined as those areas of agriculture that are practiced in metropolitan settings, plus knowledge and skills in agricultural subject areas which lead to vocational proficiency and improved quality of life or effective citizenship. Agriculture areas that are especially significant in urban settings include ornamental…

  2. Validation of Ogawa passive samplers for the determination of gaseous ammonia concentrations in agricultural settings

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roadman, M. J.; Scudlark, J. R.; Meisinger, J. J.; Ullman, W. J.

    The Ogawa passive sampler (Ogawa USA, Pompano Beach, Florida) is a useful tool for monitoring atmospheric ammonia (NH 3(g)) concentrations and assessing the effects of agricultural waste management practices on NH 3(g) emissions. The Ogawa sampler, with filter-discs impregnated with citric acid, was used to trap and determine NH 3(g) concentrations in a variety of agricultural settings. A wide range of NH 3(g) concentrations can be monitored by varying the sampler exposure time, provided that no more than ˜10 μg of NH 3-N are adsorbed on the acid-coated filters. Concentrations less than 1 μg NH 3-N m -3 can be detected using long deployments (⩽14 days), while concentrations as great as 10 mg NH 3-N m -3 may be determined in very short (e.g. 5 min) deployments. Reproducibility ranged from 5% to 10% over the range of concentrations studied and passive determinations of NH 3(g) were similar to those determined using dilute-acid gas scrubbers. Background levels of NH 3(g) at a non-agricultural site in southern Delaware were typically <1 μg NH 3-N m -3. The air entering a chicken house was 10 μg NH 3-N m -3, reflecting the background levels in agricultural settings in this region. Within the house, concentrations ⩽8.5 mg NH 3-N m -3 were observed, reflecting the high rates of NH 3(g) emission from chicken excreta. Using measured NH 3(g) concentrations and poultry house ventilation rates, we estimate that each broiler grown to production size over 6 weeks contributes approximately 19±3 g of NH 3-N to the atmosphere, a value consistent with other published results.

  3. Bridging the Divide: Challenges and Opportunities for Public Sector Agricultural Professionals Working with Amish and Mennonite Producers on Conservation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brock, Caroline; Ulrich-Schad, Jessica D; Prokopy, Linda

    2018-05-01

    As Amish and Old Order and Conservative Mennonite (i.e., Plain) farmers increase their presence in the agricultural sector, it is crucial for public sector agricultural professionals to effectively work with them to mediate nonpoint source pollution and address issues like the hypoxic zone in the Gulf of Mexico. However, there is a dearth of research on how public sector agricultural professionals can better work with Plain producers on environmental management. There are also few training resources for those working with this key, yet hard to reach, population. Additionally, due to their religious doctrines, Plain communities strive to live apart from the "world" and may be discouraged from working with government entities and attending non-Plain people events. This study analyzes interview data from 23 Amish farmers in one region of Indiana and 18 public sector agricultural professionals from a variety of backgrounds and geographies in areas of the U.S. with heavy Plain populations. Public sector agricultural professionals identified some key agronomic challenges on Plain farms related to issues like poor pasture and manure management as well as socio-cultural challenges such as restrictions on electronic and phone communication. Educators should design outreach strategies that take into consideration that faith convictions and conservation concerns may vary greatly based on the specificities of the particular Plain church group. By better understanding this population and how to work with them, public sector agricultural professionals can more effectively work towards addressing environmental problems with this under-served group.

  4. Emotions experienced in association with agricultural work performed in childhood--in opinions of adults.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lachowski, Stanisław; Lachowska, Bogusława

    2014-01-01

    Performance of work is related with experiencing various emotions, from positive - indicating full satisfaction with work, to negative - describing failures, and even harm caused by work. Such emotions are also experienced by children engaged in work on family farms. The objective of the study is the determination of emotions experienced in association with performing agricultural work in childhood, and indication of the factors conditioning the occurrence of positive and negative emotions. The study was conducted by the method of a diagnostic survey using a questionnaire technique, and covered a group of 482 adults from agricultural families. In childhood, positive emotions related with the performance of work are more often experienced than negative emotions. The occurrence of positive emotions is positively related with willingness to perform work activities, working time, respondent's age, age at which a child started to perform work, and age at which a child discontinued helping on a farm. The occurrence of negative emotions is positively related with unwillingness to perform work, performing work activities beyond the physical capabilities of a child, neglecting school duties, missing classes at school due to work, and with working time. With work performed in childhood are associated positive and negative emotions experienced in childhood and adulthood. The performance of work in childhood shapes emotions experienced by an adult which may affect his/her quality of life and functioning in adulthood.

  5. Genetically Modified Crops: Towards Agricultural Growth, Agricultural Development, or Agricultural Sustainability?

    OpenAIRE

    Azadi, Hossein; Ghanian, Mansour; Ghuchani, Omid M.; Rafiaani, Parisa; Taning, Clauvis N. T.; Hajivand, Roghaye Y.; Dogot, Thomas

    2015-01-01

    The present debate on how to increase global food production in a sustainable way has focused on arguments over the pros and cons of genetically modified (GM) crops. Scientists in both public and private sectors clearly regard GM technology as a major new set of tools, whereas industry sees it as an opportunity for increased profits. However, it remains questionable whether GM crops can contribute to agricultural growth, agricultural development, and agricultural sustainability. This review p...

  6. Child Work Safety on the Farms of Local Agricultural Market Producers: Parent and Child Perspectives.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Summers, Phillip; Quandt, Sara A; Spears Johnson, Chaya R; Arcury, Thomas A

    2018-01-01

    Agriculture is a hazardous industry, yet there are few regulations on the ages at which children may engage in farm work. Local agricultural market producers (LAMPs) are a growing subset of farmers within "sustainable agriculture" who engage in direct-to-consumer and direct-to-retailer enterprises. This study explores the occupational health and safety perceptions of parents and children for children who work on their families' LAMP farms. In-depth interviews were conducted with 12 parent-child dyads from LAMP farms in Illinois and North Carolina. Four themes emerged from these 24 interviews; parents and children perceived that: (1) the nature of small farms makes them safer than industrial agricultural operations; (2) child safety on farms is common sense; (3) avoiding hazardous tasks keeps children safe; and (4) parents know best (compared to regulations) about ways to keep their children safe. Some of these themes echo the results of earlier studies conducted with more conventional farms. Further research is needed to develop programs to improve child occupational safety on LAMP farms.

  7. Differences among Thai Agricultural Workers' Health, Working Conditions, and Pesticide Use by Farm Type.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kongtip, Pornpimol; Nankongnab, Noppanun; Mahaboonpeeti, Redeerat; Bootsikeaw, Sasivimol; Batsungnoen, Kiattisak; Hanchenlaksh, Chalalai; Tipayamongkholgul, Mathuros; Woskie, Susan

    2018-02-13

    More than 11 million Thai people (38%) work in agriculture, but since most are in the informal sector, government enforcement and support are very limited. As a result, working conditions on Thai farms vary greatly, putting the health of many agricultural workers at risk. A cross-sectional study in three Thai provinces collected information on the work activities and conditions of 424 farmers representing five farm types: rice, vegetable, flower, rice/vegetable, and flower/vegetable. The agricultural workers were mainly women (60%); their average age was 53 but ranged from 18 to 87 years. More than 64% worked more than 5 days/week. Seventy-four percent of them had only primary school education. A number of the health and hazardous working conditions surveyed were significantly different by farm type. Rice farmers were found to have the highest prevalence of allergies, nasal congestion, wheezing, and acute symptoms after pesticide use, while flower farmers had the lowest prevalence of these health outcomes. Rice farmers reported the highest prevalence of hazardous working conditions including high noise levels, working on slippery surfaces, sitting or standing on a vibrating machine, spills of chemicals/pesticides, and sharp injuries. The lowest prevalence of these working conditions (except noise) was reported by flower farmers. Vegetable farmers reported the highest prevalence knee problems, while rice farmers had the lowest prevalence. Among these farmers, more than 27 different types of pesticides were reported in use during the past year, with the majority reporting use once a month. The flower/vegetable farming group reported the highest frequency of good exposure prevention practices during pesticide use. They were the most likely to report using cotton or rubber gloves or a disposable paper masks during insecticide spraying. Those farmers who only grew vegetables had the lowest frequency of good exposure prevention practices, including use of personal

  8. Agricultural Extension: Farm Extension Services in Australia, Britain and the United States.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Williams, Donald B.

    By analyzing the scope and structure of agricultural extension services in Australia, Great Britain, and the United States, this work attempts to set guidelines for measuring progress and guiding extension efforts. Extension training, agricultural policy, and activities of national, international, state, and provincial bodies are examined. The…

  9. Region of birth, sex, and agricultural work of immigrant Latino farm workers: the MICASA study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McCurdy, S A; Stoecklin-Marois, M T; Tancredi, D J; Bennett, D H; Schenker, M B

    2014-04-01

    Agricultural work is hazardous, and immigrant workers perform the majority of production tasks, yet there are few data describing agricultural work and use of protective measures by demographic characteristics. We examined cross-sectionally the influence of region of birth (Mexico vs. Central America) and sex on agricultural work and use of protective measures in the MICASA cohort of immigrant Latino farm workers in Mendota, California. Of 445 participants, 293 (65.8%) were born in Mexico (163 men, 130 women) and 152 (34.2%) were born in Central America (80 men, 72 women). Men worked on average 74.4 more days than women (95% CI 62.0, 86.9) and were more likely to perform tasks requiring high levels of training or strength, such as machine operation, pruning, picking, planting, and irrigation; more likely to work in dusty conditions; and more likely to work directly with pesticides. Women predominated in packing. Respondents from Mexico were more likely to work with tomatoes and less likely to work with melon and lettuce. Central America-born respondents were less likely to engage in planting, irrigation, and pesticide use. Use of task-appropriate personal protective measures on at least a half-time basis was rare, with the exception of persons working with pesticides (a group limited to men) and for facial scarves among Central American women. Further work should focus on identifying barriers to use of preventive measures and programs to further their use. Educational models accounting for cultural factors and driving social norm change, employer engagement, and use of community health workers (promotores) may be helpful in promoting use of preventive measures.

  10. On Rural Financial and Accounting Work under the Background of Rapid Agricultural Economic Development

    OpenAIRE

    Tang, Yaozheng

    2013-01-01

    Under the background of rapid agricultural economic development, rural financial and accounting work is of great significance. From rural accounting management system, rural accountant allocation and rural accounting training, this paper analyzes current situations of rural accounting work in China. In rural financial and accounting work, there are following problems. (1) Accounting behavior is not standard, and basic accounting work is to be further strengthened; (2) Internal control is not ...

  11. Maximizing Success by Work Setting Diagnosis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sturner, William F.

    1990-01-01

    This article confronts the tension between creative expression and organizational realities in the workplace. It offers tips on diagnosing such components of the work setting as personal potential and ambition, supervisors' roles, colleagues' roles, organizational culture, and other variables that may influence the success of one's innovations in…

  12. Setting water quality criteria for agricultural water reuse purposes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    K. Müller

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available The use of reclaimed water for agricultural irrigation is practiced worldwide and will increase in the future. The definition of water quality limits is a useful instrument for the assessment of water quality regarding its suitability for irrigation purposes and the performance of wastewater treatment steps. This study elaborates water quality objectives for a water reuse project in a setting where national guidelines do not exist. Internationally established guidelines are therefore applied to the local context. Additional limits for turbidity, total suspended solids, biochemical and chemical oxygen demand, total phosphorus and potassium are suggested to meet the requirements of water reuse projects. Emphasis is put on water quality requirements prior to UV disinfection and nutrient requirements of cultivated crops. The presented values can be of assistance when monitoring reclaimed water quality. To facilitate the realization of water reuse projects, comprehensive and more detailed information, in particular on water quality requirements prior to disinfection steps, should be provided as well as regarding the protection of the irrigation infrastructure.

  13. Weight bias in work settings - a qualitative review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Giel, Katrin Elisabeth; Thiel, Ansgar; Teufel, Martin; Mayer, Jochen; Zipfel, Stephan

    2010-02-01

    Studies have repeatedly demonstrated the influence of physical appearance on behavior and treatment of individuals in work settings. A high proportion of obese individuals in the USA have reported perceived discrimination in the work place due to their body weight. The present review examines the specific kind, context and extent of a weight bias in work settings. We performed a literature search in the scientific databases PubMed and PsychINFO to identify studies which have investigated aspects of a potential weight bias in the occupational context. There is evidence from self-report data, surveys, and laboratory research for a weight bias in five aspects of work life. Evidence shows that obesity is a general barrier to employment, certain professions and professional success. Obese individuals are at higher risk of encountering stereotypes concerning their work-related qualities and for general unequal treatment in the work place. Current evidence reveals a weight bias in several areas in the work place. The ecological validity of results is limited due to the predominant reliance on laboratory studies with student samples. Field studies are needed to examine weight-based discrimination in actual work environments as well as to uncover underlying mechanisms. Copyright 2010 S. Karger AG, Basel.

  14. Risk factors for work-related eczema and urticaria among vocational students of agriculture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Śpiewak, Radosław; Góra-Florek, Anna; Horoch, Andrzej; Jarosz, Mirosław J; Doryńska, Agnieszka; Golec, Marcin; Dutkiewicz, Jacek

    2017-12-23

    Farmers are at high risk of occupational skin diseases which may start already during vocational training. This study was aimed at identification of risk factors for work-related skin diseases among vocational students of agriculture. The study involved 440 students (245 males, 195 females aged 17-21 years) in 11 vocational schools which were at least 100 km from each other. The protocol included a physician-managed questionnaire and medical examination, skin prick tests, patch tests, total IgE and Phadiatop. Logistic regression model was used for the identification of relevant risk factors. Work-related dermatoses were diagnosed in 29 study participants (6.6%, 95%CI: 4.3-8.9%): eczema in 22, urticaria in 14, and co-existence of both in 7 students. Significant risk factors for work-related eczema were: history of respiratory allergy (OR=10.10; pagriculture. Atopy, past history of asthma, allergic rhinitis, and eczema (either atopic, allergic or irritant) are relevant risk factors for work-related eczema and urticaria in young farmers, along with family history of any skin disease. Positive skin prick tests seem relevant, especially in the case of urticaria. Asking simple, aimed questions during health checks while enrolling students into agricultural schools would suffice to identify students at risk for work-related eczema and urticaria, giving them the chance for selecting a safer profession, and hopefully avoiding an occupational disease in the future.

  15. The structure of agricultural employees

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Henryk Łabędzki

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available In the study the analysis of agricultural employees structure on the basis of data from 120 agricultural farms in Kąty Wrocławskie has been conducted. The research confirmed, that agricultural people maximum of time spend on work in their own farms. The maximum annual time of work begins at the end of last five years of working age. The men work relatively less, in agricultural farms in the case of small area farms. While the women, if better educated and in mobile working age work more. Then the biggest engagement of work outside agricultural farm concerns persons at age of 25 to 44.

  16. 29 CFR 780.106 - Employment in “primary” agriculture is farming regardless of why or where work is performed.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 29 Labor 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Employment in âprimaryâ agriculture is farming regardless of why or where work is performed. 780.106 Section 780.106 Labor Regulations Relating to Labor... for âprimaryâ Agriculture Generally § 780.106 Employment in “primary” agriculture is farming...

  17. Agricultural policy schemes

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hansen, Henning Otte

    2016-01-01

    Agricultural support is a very important element in agricultural policy in many countries. Agricultural support is basically an instrument to meet the overall objectives of the agricultural policy – objectives set by society. There are a great number of instruments and ways of intervention...... in agricultural policy and they have different functions and impacts. Market price support and deficiency payments are two very important instruments in agricultural policy; however, they belong to two different support regimes or support systems. Market price support operates in the so-called high price system...

  18. Spatial dynamometering of working tools of agricultural implements

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    V. I. Myalenko

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Improvement of agricultural tools is impossible without experimental proof and assessments of demand setup while operation. Tools of agricultural machines usually have an asymmetrical geometric shape and are exposed to the spatial system without resultant force. In comparison with the known devices, the proposed scheme for spatial dynamometry has a number of advantages related to the accuracy of the measurement and the possibility of a complete determination of all components of the spatial power characteristics. During operation the dynamometer is installed instead of any usual agricultural tool. The dynamometer records the force in the strain-measuring segment at various operating modes of the agricultural tool. A block diagram of the strain-measuring segments connection with the electronic media provides the definition of the main vector parameters and the principal moment of the external force loading of agricultural machines tools. The strain-measuring segments are rigidly fixed concerning a skeleton of the soil-cultivating implement. For convenience of the subsequent processing of results of measurement all tensometric links are located parallel to the corresponding coordinate axis.The proposed algorithm for processing the results of measuring the stress of strain-measuring segment makes it possible to determine the point grid reference of the dynamic screw axis with the surface of the tool. The latter is a necessary circumstance in the analysis of the dynamics of the movement of the agricultural aggregate and, in particular, when considering of the dynamical stability of an aggregate while performing technological operations.

  19. The structure of agricultural employees

    OpenAIRE

    Henryk Łabędzki

    2009-01-01

    In the study the analysis of agricultural employees structure on the basis of data from 120 agricultural farms in Kąty Wrocławskie has been conducted. The research confirmed, that agricultural people maximum of time spend on work in their own farms. The maximum annual time of work begins at the end of last five years of working age. The men work relatively less, in agricultural farms in the case of small area farms. While the women, if better educated and in mobile working age work more. Then...

  20. A Comparison of Honey Bee-Collected Pollen From Working Agricultural Lands Using Light Microscopy and ITS Metabarcoding.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smart, M D; Cornman, R S; Iwanowicz, D D; McDermott-Kubeczko, M; Pettis, J S; Spivak, M S; Otto, C R V

    2017-02-01

    Taxonomic identification of pollen has historically been accomplished via light microscopy but requires specialized knowledge and reference collections, particularly when identification to lower taxonomic levels is necessary. Recently, next-generation sequencing technology has been used as a cost-effective alternative for identifying bee-collected pollen; however, this novel approach has not been tested on a spatially or temporally robust number of pollen samples. Here, we compare pollen identification results derived from light microscopy and DNA sequencing techniques with samples collected from honey bee colonies embedded within a gradient of intensive agricultural landscapes in the Northern Great Plains throughout the 2010-2011 growing seasons. We demonstrate that at all taxonomic levels, DNA sequencing was able to discern a greater number of taxa, and was particularly useful for the identification of infrequently detected species. Importantly, substantial phenological overlap did occur for commonly detected taxa using either technique, suggesting that DNA sequencing is an appropriate, and enhancing, substitutive technique for accurately capturing the breadth of bee-collected species of pollen present across agricultural landscapes. We also show that honey bees located in high and low intensity agricultural settings forage on dissimilar plants, though with overlap of the most abundantly collected pollen taxa. We highlight practical applications of utilizing sequencing technology, including addressing ecological issues surrounding land use, climate change, importance of taxa relative to abundance, and evaluating the impact of conservation program habitat enhancement efforts. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Entomological Society of America 2016. This work is written by US Government employees and is in the public domain in the US.

  1. Agricultural occupational health and safety perspectives among Latino-American youth.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Perla, M E; Iman, Esmeralda; Campos, Leticia; Perkins, Alexandra; Liebman, Amy K; Miller, Mary E; Beaudet, Nancy J; Karr, Catherine J

    2015-01-01

    Agricultural work is one of the most dangerous jobs for adolescents. Through a university-community partnership, the authors surveyed young primarily acculturated Latino-American farmworkers 14 to 18 years of age regarding their agricultural work experience. Topics included occupational health and safety education, work history, and information sources. The authors also evaluated the Rapid Clinical Assessment Tool (RCAT), a pictorial tool for identifying agricultural tasks to enhance discussion with clinical providers. One hundred forty youth with farmwork experience completed the survey; 6% reported a previous work-related injury or illness and 53% reported receiving some workplace health and safety training. Correct identification of legally restricted duties for youth varied but were generally low: participants identified working alone past 8 pm (57%), driving a forklift (56%), doing roofing work (39%), working in freezers (34%), and driving a delivery vehicle (30%). The Internet was identified as the most likely and reliable place youth would go to find information on workplace health and safety. Few (15%) reported clinician-initiated conversations on occupational health; however, a high proportion responded positively to questions regarding the usefulness of the RCAT for this purpose. This study highlights the need for workplace health and safety guidance for youth employed in agriculture. The results support Internet-based outreach and use of the RCAT to help facilitate occupational health discussions in clinical settings.

  2. Agriculture--Agriculture Science--Seed Germination. Kit No. 51. Instructor's Manual [and] Student Learning Activity Guide.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cooper, Samuel

    An instructor's manual and student activity guide on seed germination are provided in this set of prevocational education materials which focuses on the vocational area of agriculture. (This set of materials is one of ninety-two prevocational education sets arranged around a cluster of seven vocational offerings: agriculture, home economics,…

  3. Agriculture--Agricultural Mechanics, Electric Motors. Kit No. 56. Instructor's Manual [and] Student Learning Activity Guide.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bomar, William

    An instructor's manual and student activity guide on agricultural mechanics (electric motors) are provided in this set of prevocational education materials which focuses on the vocational area of agriculture. (This set of materials is one of ninety-two prevocational education sets arranged around a cluster of seven vocational offerings:…

  4. Perceived Work-Life Balance Ability, Job Satisfaction, and Professional Commitment among Agriculture Teachers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sorensen, Tyson J.; McKim, Aaron J.

    2014-01-01

    Agriculture teachers participate in various work and life roles, which can create challenges when trying to balance the pressures and responsibilities associated with each role. When one is unable to balance and prioritize between roles, both satisfaction and professional commitment may be reduced. The purpose of this study was to describe Oregon…

  5. Development of an Ergonomics Checklist for Investigation of Work-Related Whole-Body Disorders in Farming - AWBA: Agricultural Whole-Body Assessment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kong, Y K; Lee, S J; Lee, K S; Kim, G R; Kim, D M

    2015-10-01

    Researchers have been using various ergonomic tools to study occupational musculoskeletal diseases in industrial contexts. However, in agricultural work, where the work environment is poorer and the socio-psychological stress is high due to the high labor intensities of the industry, current research efforts have been scarce, and the number of available tools is small. In our preliminary studies, which focused on a limited number of body parts and other working elements, we developed separate evaluation tools for the upper and lower extremities. The current study was conducted to develop a whole-body ergonomic assessment tool for agricultural work that integrates the existing assessment tools for lower and upper extremities developed in the preliminary studies and to verify the relevance of the integrated assessment tool. To verify the relevance of the Agricultural Whole-Body Assessment (AWBA) tool, we selected 50 different postures that occur frequently in agricultural work. Our results showed that the AWBA-determined risk levels were similar to the subjective risk levels determined by experts. In addition, as the risk level increased, the average risk level increased to a similar extent. Moreover, the differences in risk levels between the AWBA and expert assessments were mostly smaller than the differences in risk levels between other assessment tools and the expert assessments in this study. In conclusion, the AWBA tool developed in this study was demonstrated to be appropriate for use as a tool for assessing various postures commonly assumed in agricultural work. Moreover, we believe that our verification of the assessment tools will contribute to the enhancement of the quality of activities designed to prevent and control work-related musculoskeletal diseases in other industries.

  6. Impact of spinal pain on daily living activities in postmenopausal women working in agriculture

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dorota Raczkiewicz

    2017-03-01

    The impact of spinal pain on daily life activities in postmenopausal women working in agriculture was assessed as moderate, on average, and depended mainly on spinal pain-related characteristics, such as severity, age at onset and co-existence of pain in any other spinal sections

  7. Shaping scientific excellence in agricultural research

    OpenAIRE

    Chataway, Jo; Smith, James; Wield, David

    2007-01-01

    Science and technology - and particularly biotechnology - are increasingly central to development agendas in Africa and elsewhere. Implicit within the centralitiy of science and technology lie a set of policy issues regarding how best to shape contextually appropriate, innovative and sustainable science and technological products in, with and for developing countries. The work of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) is a case in point and we draw our empirical...

  8. Diagnosing Management of Agricultural Research and Technology Development under the Agricultural Innovation Framework

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available This study aimed at identifying and analyzing issues and challenges on the agricultural research and technology development under the national innovation framework. The survey consisted of two groups: agricultural researchers of Agriculture-Research and Education Organization and all faculty members of public agricultural faculties of Ministry of Scientific, Research and Technology. Using Cochran sampling formula and multi-stage sampling method, 188 researchers and 205 faculty members were selected in order to fill in the survey questionnaire. Using the SPSS, collected data analyzed based on explanatory factor analysis. Totally, factor analysis of three sets of issues and challenges on the agricultural research and technology development under the national innovation framework led to extract 13 factors, including agricultural structure and policy, infrastructure and resources of agricultural development, supportive services for agricultural development (level of agricultural development, investment and capacity building in research and technology, management of research and technology development, research and technology productivity, research culture, networks for research and technology development (level of national innovation system, agricultural research policy, impacts and effectiveness of agricultural research and technology development, integrated management of research and technology, institutional development for agricultural research and technology and systematic synergy of agricultural research and higher education (level of agricultural innovation system. Totally, these three sets of factors explained 64%, 75% and 73% of the total variances. Finally, using conceptual clustering for the extracted factors, a conceptual model of issues and challenges of agricultural research and technology development under the national innovation framework was presented.

  9. In Pursuit of Energy Efficiency in India's Agriculture: Fighting 'Free Power' or Working with it?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Swain, Ashwini; Charnoz, Olivier

    2012-08-01

    While about 70% of Indian electricity is carbon-based, a quarter of the nation's consumption goes into agriculture, to extract groundwater for irrigation. Improving the energy efficiency of Indian agriculture is thus a critical issue for the world at large, from both a climate change and energy security perspective. Yet, the picture is made immensely complex given the entrenched policy of providing 'free power' to farmers since the Green Revolution of the 1970's. Over the past two decades, a neo-liberal discourse shared by many Indian and international technocrats has emerged that frames 'free power' as a unilateral problem that leads to economic inefficiencies affecting utilities, the state governments but also the farmers themselves through the unfair allocation of subsidies. The solution that is hence most advocated is to revise and increase tariffs and to improve the technical efficiency of India's 23 million pumps. Key international donors have promoted this line of thinking, making higher tariffs and universal metering a precondition for financing power-sector reforms. Through qualitative data gathered in interviews and fieldwork in four Indian states (Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat and West Bengal), this work challenges this perspective. It contends that the raising of electricity prices would deeply and unavoidably aggravate rural poverty as well as endanger food security. Whether one likes it or not, moreover, electricity subsidies have become a cornerstone of rural politics in India, as the Congress Party hegemony was challenged by regional parties with strong support among the peasantry. Both pragmatism and effectiveness now call for looking at 'free power' as a constraint to work with, rather than a problem to work against. At the same time, concentrating solely on technically improving the efficiency of pumps might further aggravate the speed at which water tables are depleted. There is thus a need to first optimise water demand in agriculture

  10. Building a Data Set over 12 Globally Distributed Sites to Support the Development of Agriculture Monitoring Applications with Sentinel-2

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sophie Bontemps

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Developing better agricultural monitoring capabilities based on Earth Observation data is critical for strengthening food production information and market transparency. The Sentinel-2 mission has the optimal capacity for regional to global agriculture monitoring in terms of resolution (10–20 meter, revisit frequency (five days and coverage (global. In this context, the European Space Agency launched in 2014 the “Sentinel­2 for Agriculture” project, which aims to prepare the exploitation of Sentinel-2 data for agriculture monitoring through the development of open source processing chains for relevant products. The project generated an unprecedented data set, made of “Sentinel-2 like” time series and in situ data acquired in 2013 over 12 globally distributed sites. Earth Observation time series were mostly built on the SPOT4 (Take 5 data set, which was specifically designed to simulate Sentinel-2. They also included Landsat 8 and RapidEye imagery as complementary data sources. Images were pre-processed to Level 2A and the quality of the resulting time series was assessed. In situ data about cropland, crop type and biophysical variables were shared by site managers, most of them belonging to the “Joint Experiment for Crop Assessment and Monitoring” network. This data set allowed testing and comparing across sites the methodologies that will be at the core of the future “Sentinel­2 for Agriculture” system.

  11. Emerging Agricultural Biotechnologies for Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anderson, Jennifer A; Gipmans, Martijn; Hurst, Susan; Layton, Raymond; Nehra, Narender; Pickett, John; Shah, Dilip M; Souza, Thiago Lívio P O; Tripathi, Leena

    2016-01-20

    As global populations continue to increase, agricultural productivity will be challenged to keep pace without overtaxing important environmental resources. A dynamic and integrated approach will be required to solve global food insecurity and position agriculture on a trajectory toward sustainability. Genetically modified (GM) crops enhanced through modern biotechnology represent an important set of tools that can promote sustainable agriculture and improve food security. Several emerging biotechnology approaches were discussed in a recent symposium organized at the 13th IUPAC International Congress of Pesticide Chemistry meeting in San Francisco, CA, USA. This paper summarizes the innovative research and several of the new and emerging technologies within the field of agricultural biotechnology that were presented during the symposium. This discussion highlights how agricultural biotechnology fits within the context of sustainable agriculture and improved food security and can be used in support of further development and adoption of beneficial GM crops.

  12. Agriculture and Nutrition in Bangladesh: Mapping Evidence to Pathways.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yosef, Sivan; Jones, Andrew D; Chakraborty, Barnali; Gillespie, Stuart

    2015-12-01

    Although much work has been done on the theoretical links between agriculture and nutrition, there is limited understanding of the evidence from observational and experimental research studies on the impacts of agriculture programs on nutrition outcomes. To assess the emphasis of the literature on different agriculture-nutrition pathways in Bangladesh. Twenty databases and Web sites were searched, yielding more than 2400 resources that were pared down through an iterative, eliminative process to 60 articles. These articles were then rated for quality and mapped to 1 of the 6 agriculture-nutrition pathways. The body of evidence reveals gaps in knowledge in all of the pathways, but especially in the areas of agriculture as a source of livelihoods, and women's role as intermediaries between agriculture and good nutrition and health within their household. More research is needed on the links between agriculture and nutrition in country-specific settings, particularly as regards the role of women. Nutrition-related outcomes, such as dietary diversity and women's empowerment, need to be measured more explicitly when evaluating the impact of agricultural production systems and development initiatives. © The Author(s) 2015.

  13. Set Up of an Automatic Water Quality Sampling System in Irrigation Agriculture

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Emanuel Heinz

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available We have developed a high-resolution automatic sampling system for continuous in situ measurements of stable water isotopic composition and nitrogen solutes along with hydrological information. The system facilitates concurrent monitoring of a large number of water and nutrient fluxes (ground, surface, irrigation and rain water in irrigated agriculture. For this purpose we couple an automatic sampling system with a Wavelength-Scanned Cavity Ring Down Spectrometry System (WS-CRDS for stable water isotope analysis (δ2H and δ18O, a reagentless hyperspectral UV photometer (ProPS for monitoring nitrate content and various water level sensors for hydrometric information. The automatic sampling system consists of different sampling stations equipped with pumps, a switch cabinet for valve and pump control and a computer operating the system. The complete system is operated via internet-based control software, allowing supervision from nearly anywhere. The system is currently set up at the International Rice Research Institute (Los Baños, The Philippines in a diversified rice growing system to continuously monitor water and nutrient fluxes. Here we present the system’s technical set-up and provide initial proof-of-concept with results for the isotopic composition of different water sources and nitrate values from the 2012 dry season.

  14. An Exploratory Analysis of Student-Community Interactions in Urban Agriculture

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grossman, Julie; Sherard, Maximilian; Prohn, Seb M.; Bradley, Lucy; Goodell, L. Suzanne; Andrew, Katherine

    2012-01-01

    Urban agriculture initiatives are on the rise, providing healthy food while teaching a land ethic to youth. In parallel, increasing numbers of university graduates are obtaining Extension work requiring the effective communication of science in a diverse, urban, low-income setting. This study evaluates a pilot service-learning program, the…

  15. A Body of Work Standard-Setting Method with Construct Maps

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wyse, Adam E.; Bunch, Michael B.; Deville, Craig; Viger, Steven G.

    2014-01-01

    This article describes a novel variation of the Body of Work method that uses construct maps to overcome problems of transparency, rater inconsistency, and scores gaps commonly occurring with the Body of Work method. The Body of Work method with construct maps was implemented to set cut-scores for two separate K-12 assessment programs in a large…

  16. Pesticides in ground water in selected agricultural land-use areas and hydrogeologic settings in Pennsylvania, 2003-07

    Science.gov (United States)

    Loper, Connie A.; Breen, Kevin J.; Zimmerman, Tammy M.; Clune, John W.

    2009-01-01

    This report was prepared by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture (PDA) as part of the Pennsylvania Pesticides and Ground Water Strategy (PPGWS). Monitoring data and extensive quality-assurance data on the occurrence of pesticides in ground water during 2003–07 are presented and evaluated; decreases in the land area used for agriculture and corresponding changes in the use of pesticides also are documented. In the Pennsylvania ground waters assessed since 2003, concentrations of pesticides did not exceed any maximum contaminant or health advisory levels established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; PPGWS actions are invoked by the PDA at fractions of these levels and were needed only in areas designated by the PDA for special ground-water protection. Previous investigations through 1998 of pesticides in Pennsylvania ground water identified land use, as a surrogate for pesticide use, and rock type of the aquifer combined with physiography as key hydrogeologic setting variables for understanding aquifer vulnerability to contamination and the common occurrence of atrazine and metolachlor in ground water. Of 20 major hydrogeologic settings in a framework established in 1999 for pesticide monitoring in Pennsylvania, 9 were identified as priorities for data collection in order to change the monitoring status from "inadequate" to "adequate" for the PPGWS. Agricultural and forested land-use areas are decreasing because of urban and suburban growth. In the nine hydrogeologic settings evaluated using 1992 and 2001 data, decreases of up to 12 percent for agricultural land and 10 percent for forested land corresponded to increases of up to 11 percent for urban land. Changes in agricultural pesticide use were computed from crop data. For example, from 1996 to 2004–05, atrazine use declined by about 15 percent to 1,314,000 lb/yr (pounds per year) and metolachlor use increased by about 20 percent to 895

  17. A Spatial Data Model Desing For The Management Of Agricultural Data (Farmer, Agricultural Land And Agricultural Production)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taşkanat, Talha; İbrahim İnan, Halil

    2016-04-01

    Since the beginning of the 2000s, it has been conducted many projects such as Agricultural Sector Integrated Management Information System, Agriculture Information System, Agricultural Production Registry System and Farmer Registry System by the Turkish Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock and the Turkish Statistical Institute in order to establish and manage better agricultural policy and produce better agricultural statistics in Turkey. Yet, it has not been carried out any study for the structuring of a system which can meet the requirements of different institutions and organizations that need similar agricultural data. It has been tried to meet required data only within the frame of the legal regulations from present systems. Whereas the developments in GIS (Geographical Information Systems) and standardization, and Turkey National GIS enterprise in this context necessitate to meet the demands of organizations that use the similar data commonly and to act in terms of a data model logic. In this study, 38 institutions or organization which produce and use agricultural data were detected, that and thanks to survey and interviews undertaken, their needs were tried to be determined. In this study which is financially supported by TUBITAK, it was worked out relationship between farmer, agricultural land and agricultural production data and all of the institutions and organizations in Turkey and in this context, it was worked upon the best detailed and effective possible data model. In the model design, UML which provides object-oriented design was used. In the data model, for the management of spatial data, sub-parcel data model was used. Thanks to this data model, declared and undeclared areas can be detected spatially, and thus declarations can be associated to sub-parcels. Within this framework, it will be able to developed agricultural policies as a result of acquiring more extensive, accurate, spatially manageable and easily updatable farmer and

  18. Making Agricultural Innovation Systems (AIS Work for Development in Tropical Countries

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Philipp Aerni

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Agricultural innovation in low-income tropical countries contributes to a more effective and sustainable use of natural resources and reduces hunger and poverty through economic development in rural areas. Yet, despite numerous recent public and private initiatives to develop capacities for agricultural innovation, such initiatives are often not well aligned with national efforts to revive existing Agricultural Innovation Systems (AIS. In an effort to improve coordination and responsiveness of Capacity Development (CD initiatives, the G20 Agriculture Ministers requested the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO to lead the development of a Tropical Agricultural Platform (TAP, which is designed to improve coherence and coordination of CD for agricultural innovation in the tropics. This paper presents a summary of the results obtained from three regional needs assessments undertaken by TAP and its partners. The surveyed tropical regions were Southeast Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and Central America. The findings reveal a mismatch in all three regions between the external supply of primarily individual CD and the actual demand for institutional CD. The misalignment might be addressed by strengthening south-south and triangular collaboration and by improving the institutional capacities that would render national AIS more demand-oriented and responsive to the needs of smallholders in domestic agriculture.

  19. Controlling of agricultural machine and implements; Monitoramento do trabalho de maquinas agricolas

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Silveira, G.M.; Peche Filho, A.; Yanai, K.; Storino, M.; Bernardi, J.A. [Instituto Agronomico de Campinas (CEA/IAC), Jundiai, SP (Brazil). Centro de Engenharia e Automacao], E-mail: silveira@iac.sp.gov.br

    2008-07-01

    A profitable farm or agriculture crop depends on the correct management of the several jobs developed there. For that, in those mechanized, monitoring of the work done by the agricultural machines and implements always deserved a great attention. In this work, the utilization of an automatic data acquisition system, designed for field information's survey, is showed. The obtained data are related with time and motion, work capacity and operational efficiency, fuel consumption in corn planting. The system was conceived to determining the position of the tractor in the field by mean of the global positioning system (GPS), the fuel consumption, the engine angular velocity (r.p.m.) and forward tractor velocity. This set of data allows the statistical control of the operational parameters generating reports containing the most important management indicators, in other words, operational yield and the work conditions. Experiments were carried out in corn fields of the Automation and Agricultural Engineering Center of IAC/SAA. Seeding operations were monitored, aiming for the performance characterization of the machinery used. (author)

  20. How important are autonomy and work setting to nurse practitioners' job satisfaction?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Athey, Erin K; Leslie, Mayri Sagady; Briggs, Linda A; Park, Jeongyoung; Falk, Nancy L; Pericak, Arlene; El-Banna, Majeda M; Greene, Jessica

    2016-06-01

    Nurse practitioners (NPs) have reported aspects of their jobs that they are more and less satisfied with. However, few studies have examined the factors that predict overall job satisfaction. This study uses a large national sample to examine the extent to which autonomy and work setting predict job satisfaction. The 2012 National Sample Survey of Nurse Practitioners (n = 8311) was used to examine bivariate and multivariate relationships between work setting and three autonomy variables (independent billing practices, having one's NP skills fully utilized, and relationship with physician), and job satisfaction. NPs working in primary care reported the highest levels of autonomy across all three autonomy measures, while those working in hospital surgical settings reported the lowest levels. Autonomy, specifically feeling one's NP skills were fully utilized, was the factor most predictive of satisfaction. In multivariate analyses, those who strongly agreed their skills were being fully utilized had satisfaction scores almost one point higher than those who strongly disagreed. Work setting was only marginally related to job satisfaction. In order to attract and retain NPs in the future, healthcare organizations should ensure that NPs' skills are being fully utilized. ©2015 American Association of Nurse Practitioners.

  1. Satellite Images-Based Obstacle Recognition and Trajectory Generation for Agricultural Vehicles

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mehmet Bodur

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available In this study, a method for the generation of tracking trajectory points, detection and positioning of obstacles in agricultural fields have been presented. Our principal contribution is to produce traceable GPS trajectories for agricultural vehicles to be utilized by path planning algorithms, rather than a new path planning algorithm. The proposed system works with minimal initialization requirements, specifically, a single geographical coordinate entry of an agricultural field. The automation of agricultural plantation requires many aspects to be addressed, many of which have been covered in previous studies. Depending on the type of crop, different agricultural vehicles may be used in the field. However, regardless of their application, they all follow a specified trajectory in the field. This study takes advantage of satellite images for the detection and positioning of obstacles, and the generation of GPS trajectories in the agricultural realm. A set of image processing techniques is applied in Matlab for detection and positioning.

  2. Work-Family Conflict, Resources, and Role Set Density: Assessing Their Effects on Distress among Working Mothers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kulik, Liat; Liberman, Gabriel

    2013-01-01

    We explored the relationships between the experience of work-family conflict and levels of distress in the family and at work among a sample of 227 Israeli working mothers. We also examined how role set density (RSD, the number of roles they perform) and personal and environmental resources are related to the women's experience of distress.…

  3. ACCOUNTING ON THE PARTICULARITIES THAT CONCESSION AGRICULTURAL UNITS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    BOCHIS LEONICA

    2012-07-01

    Full Text Available Agriculture represents the branch of the material production which deals with growing crops and raising animals in order to obtain farm produce and some raw materials, as well asthe totality of works and methods used for this purpose. Agriculture has specific traits mainly induced by the traits of its results. Thereupon, what sets apart agriculture from other sectors of the economy is the volume, structure and concretization of the resources in the process of their consumption. The essential cause of these differences is the fact that land is the main production factor and that, compared to the development level of the production forces and the natural and biological factors, it behaves in a specific manner.Definitions and characteristics of agricultural activities are given also in The International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS , respectively IAS 41, “Agriculture”. Hence, according to IAS 41 “Agriculture”, agricultural activity is defined as the management of the biological transformation of biological assets (living plants and animals into agricultural produce (harvested product of the entity's biological assets. The received concessions represent an important characteristic of these units and, as a particular case concerning such concessions, we will tackle the issue of terrains pertaining to the assets sold by the Romsilva National Forests Administration.

  4. Guidelines for children's work in agriculture: implications for the future.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marlenga, Barbara; Lee, Barbara C; Pickett, William

    2012-01-01

    The North American Guidelines for Children's Agricultural Tasks (NAGCAT) were developed to assist parents in assigning developmentally appropriate and safe farm work to their children aged 7-16 years. Since their release in 1999, a growing body of evidence has accumulated regarding the content and application of these guidelines to populations of working children on farms. The purpose of this paper is to review the scientific and programmatic evidence about the content, efficacy, application, and uptake of NAGCAT and propose key recommendations for the future. The methods for this review included a synthesis of the peer-reviewed literature and programmatic evidence gathered from safety professionals. From the review, it is clear that the NAGCAT tractor guidelines and the manual material handling guidelines need to be updated based upon the latest empirical evidence. While NAGCAT do have the potential to prevent serious injuries to working children in the correct age range (7-16 years), the highest incidence of farm related injuries and fatalities occur to children aged 1-6 years and NAGCAT are unlikely to have any direct effect on this leading injury problem. It is also clear that NAGCAT, as a voluntary educational strategy, is not sufficient by itself to protect children working on farms. Uptake of NAGCAT has been sporadic, despite being geographically widespread and has depended, almost solely, on a few interested and committed professionals. Key recommendations for the future are provided based upon this review.

  5. The capability set for work - correlates of sustainable employability in workers with multiple sclerosis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van Gorp, D A M; van der Klink, J J L; Abma, F I; Jongen, P J; van Lieshout, I; Arnoldus, E P J; Beenakker, E A C; Bos, H M; van Eijk, J J J; Fermont, J; Frequin, S T F M; de Gans, K; Hengstman, G J D; Hupperts, R M M; Mostert, J P; Pop, P H M; Verhagen, W I M; Zemel, D; Heerings, M A P; Reneman, M F; Middelkoop, H A M; Visser, L H; van der Hiele, K

    2018-06-01

    The aim of this study was to examine whether work capabilities differ between workers with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and workers from the general population. The second aim was to investigate whether the capability set was related to work and health outcomes. A total of 163 workers with MS from the MS@Work study and 163 workers from the general population were matched for gender, age, educational level and working hours. All participants completed online questionnaires on demographics, health and work functioning. The Capability Set for Work Questionnaire was used to explore whether a set of seven work values is considered valuable (A), is enabled in the work context (B), and can be achieved by the individual (C). When all three criteria are met a work value can be considered part of the individual's 'capability set'. Group differences and relationships with work and health outcomes were examined. Despite lower physical work functioning (U = 4250, p = 0.001), lower work ability (U = 10591, p = 0.006) and worse self-reported health (U = 9091, p ≤ 0.001) workers with MS had a larger capability set (U = 9649, p ≤ 0.001) than the general population. In workers with MS, a larger capability set was associated with better flexible work functioning (r = 0.30), work ability (r = 0.25), self-rated health (r = 0.25); and with less absenteeism (r = - 0.26), presenteeism (r = - 0.31), cognitive/neuropsychiatric impairment (r = - 0.35), depression (r = - 0.43), anxiety (r = - 0.31) and fatigue (r = - 0.34). Workers with MS have a larger capability set than workers from the general population. In workers with MS a larger capability set was associated with better work and health outcomes. This observational study is registered under NL43098.008.12: 'Voorspellers van arbeidsparticipatie bij mensen met relapsing-remitting Multiple Sclerose'. The study is registered at the Dutch CCMO register ( https

  6. Environmental Protection Tools in Agricultural Management Works

    Science.gov (United States)

    Glowacka, Agnieszka; Taszakowski, Jaroslaw; Janus, Jaroslaw; Bozek, Piotr

    2016-10-01

    Land consolidation is a fundamental instrument for agricultural management. It facilitates comprehensive changes in the agricultural, social, and ecological domains. Consolidation and post-consolidation development-related investments are an opportunity to improve living conditions in rural areas, and simultaneously ensure its positive impact on the environment. One of the primary goals of consolidation, directly specified in the Act on land consolidation, is to improve farming conditions. In Poland, consolidation is possible due to EU funds: RDP 2007-2013 and RDP 2014-2020. In order for individual villages to be granted EU funds for consolidation and post-consolidation development under the Rural Development Programme 2014-2020, their consolidation has to implement actions with positive impact on the environment and the landscape. The goal of this paper is to analyse documentation in the form of assumptions for a land consolidation project enclosed to an RDP 2014-2020 grant application and project information sheets as the basis for environmental impact assessment in the context of detailed presentation of environmental protection solutions that ensure a positive impact of the project on the environment and landscape. The detailed study involved 9 villages in the Malopolskie Voivodeship, which applied for EU grants for land consolidation in the current financial perspective. The paper specifies the existing state of the analysed villages as regards the natural environment, lists agricultural management instruments that have a positive impact on the environment, and demonstrates that planning of actions aimed at environmental protection is a necessary element of assumptions for land consolidation projects.

  7. International Agricultural Trade and Policy: Issues and Implications for U.S. Agriculture. Texas Agricultural Market Research Center Special Series Report No. SS-2-89.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Williams, Gary W.

    Historical events have set the stage for the current U.S. agricultural export performance. Agricultural exports in the early 1990s were as large or larger relative to the size of the agricultural sector than at any time since. A dramatic decrease in net farm income was caused by the Great Depression (1929-1932). Following passage of the…

  8. Agricultural production and water use scenarios in Cyprus under global change

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bruggeman, Adriana; Zoumides, Christos; Camera, Corrado; Pashiardis, Stelios; Zomeni, Zomenia

    2014-05-01

    In many countries of the world, food demand exceeds the total agricultural production. In semi-arid countries, agricultural water demand often also exceeds the sustainable supply of water resources. These water-stressed countries are expected to become even drier, as a result of global climate change. This will have a significant impact on the future of the agricultural sector and on food security. The aim of the AGWATER project consortium is to provide recommendations for climate change adaptation for the agricultural sector in Cyprus and the wider Mediterranean region. Gridded climate data sets, with 1-km horizontal resolution were prepared for Cyprus for 1980-2010. Regional Climate Model results were statistically downscaled, with the help of spatial weather generators. A new soil map was prepared using a predictive modelling and mapping technique and a large spatial database with soil and environmental parameters. Stakeholder meetings with agriculture and water stakeholders were held to develop future water prices, based on energy scenarios and to identify climate resilient production systems. Green houses, including also hydroponic systems, grapes, potatoes, cactus pears and carob trees were the more frequently identified production systems. The green-blue-water model, based on the FAO-56 dual crop coefficient approach, has been set up to compute agricultural water demand and yields for all crop fields in Cyprus under selected future scenarios. A set of agricultural production and water use performance indicators are computed by the model, including green and blue water use, crop yield, crop water productivity, net value of crop production and economic water productivity. This work is part of the AGWATER project - AEIFORIA/GEOGRO/0311(BIE)/06 - co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund and the Republic of Cyprus through the Research Promotion Foundation.

  9. Representative Agricultural Pathways: A Trans-Disciplinary Approach to Agricultural Model Inter-comparison, Improvement, Climate Impact Assessment and Stakeholder Engagement

    Science.gov (United States)

    Antle, J. M.; Valdivia, R. O.; Claessens, L.; Nelson, G. C.; Rosenzweig, C.; Ruane, A. C.; Vervoort, J.

    2013-12-01

    The global change research community has recognized that new pathway and scenario concepts are needed to implement impact and vulnerability assessment that is logically consistent across local, regional and global scales. For impact and vulnerability assessment, new socio-economic pathway and scenario concepts are being developed. Representative Agricultural Pathways (RAPs) are designed to extend global pathways to provide the detail needed for global and regional assessment of agricultural systems. In addition, research by the Agricultural Model Inter-comparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) shows that RAPs provide a powerful way to engage stakeholders in climate-related research throughout the research process and in communication of research results. RAPs are based on the integrated assessment framework developed by AgMIP. This framework shows that both bio-physical and socio-economic drivers are essential components of agricultural pathways and logically precede the definition of adaptation and mitigation scenarios that embody associated capabilities and challenges. This approach is based on a trans-disciplinary process for designing pathways and then translating them into parameter sets for bio-physical and economic models that are components of agricultural integrated assessments of climate impact, adaptation and mitigation. RAPs must be designed to be part of a logically consistent set of drivers and outcomes from global to regional and local. Global RAPs are designed to be consistent with higher-level global socio-economic pathways, but add key agricultural drivers such as agricultural growth trends that are not specified in more general pathways, as illustrated in a recent inter-comparison of global agricultural models. To create pathways at regional or local scales, further detail is needed. At this level, teams of scientists and other experts with knowledge of the agricultural systems and regions work together through a step-wise process. Experiences

  10. Distraction: an assessment of smartphone usage in health care work settings

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gill PS

    2012-08-01

    Full Text Available Preetinder S Gill,1 Ashwini Kamath,2 Tejkaran S Gill31College of Technology, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, MI, USA; 2School of Information, University of Texas, Austin, TX, USA; 3College of Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USAAbstract: Smartphone use in health care work settings presents both opportunities and challenges. The benefits could be severely undermined if abuse and overuse are not kept in check. This practice-focused research paper examines the current panorama of health software applications. Findings from existing research are consolidated to elucidate the level and effects of distraction in health care work settings due to smartphone use. A conceptual framework for crafting guidelines to regulate the use of smartphones in health care work settings is then presented. Finally, specific guidelines are delineated to assist in creating policies for the use of smartphones in a health care workplace.Keywords: smartphone, health care, distraction, workplace, mobile apps, health informatics

  11. Accuracy of Setting Work-pieces on Automatic Lines with Pallet-fixtures

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    L. A. Kolesnikov

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The accuracy of positioning surfaces to be processed on automatic lines with pallet-fixtures essentially depends on the setting error of the pallet-fixtures with work-pieces in ready-to-work position.The applied methods for calculating the setting error do not give a complete picture of the possible coordinates of the point when in the pallet is displaced in different directions.The aim of the work was to determine an accuracy of the setting work-pieces on automatic lines with pallets-fixtures, using a computational and analytical method, to improve a manufacturing precision of parts.The currently used methods to calculate the setting error do not give a complete picture of the possible coordinates of the point of the pallet displacement in different directions. The paper offers a method of equivalent mechanism to determine all the variety of options for displacements in the horizontal plane with a diverse combination of angular and plane-parallel displacements.Using a four-bar linkage, as an equivalent mechanism, allows us to define a zone of the possible positions of any point of the work-piece pallet platform, as the zone bounded by the coupler curve. In case the gaps in the nodes of the two fixtures are equal the zone of possible positions of the point in the parallel displacement of the platform is determined by the circumference and at an angular displacement by the ellipse.The obtained analytical dependences allow us to determine the error at the stage of design with the certain gaps in the fixture nodes.The above method of calculation makes it possible to define a zone of the appropriate placement of the work-piece on its platform for the specified parameters of the pallet to meet conditions for ensuring the coordinate accuracy of the processed axes of holes.

  12. Mental health nurses' perceptions of good work in an acute setting.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cleary, Michelle; Horsfall, Jan; O'Hara-Aarons, Maureen; Jackson, Debra; Hunt, Glenn E

    2012-10-01

    Frequently, research and conference papers explore difficult or problematic areas of practice that can inadvertently render daily nursing accomplishments invisible and create the perception of a discipline in crisis. In this qualitative study, we explore the views of registered nurses about achievements in the workplace and good nursing work in an acute inpatient mental health setting in Sydney, Australia. Mental health nurses were asked a series of questions about their experiences and understanding of what constitutes good nursing work as well as their sense of optimism about their work. A total of 40 structured face-to-face interviews were completed. Among the responses to questions about achievements and good nursing practice, five broad themes were identified: i) teamwork; (ii) interpersonal interactions with patients; (iii) providing practical and holistic support to patients; (iv) patients' mental health improvements; and (v) optimism-pessimism continuum. Findings contribute to a discussion of good nursing work in acute mental health settings, as well as self-perceptions of optimism and hopefulness, which are important contributors to positive, supportive health-care settings and patient recovery. © 2012 The Authors. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing © 2012 Australian College of Mental Health Nurses Inc.

  13. The work setting of diabetes nursing specialists in the Netherlands: a questionnaire survey.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van den Berg, Tilja I J; Vrijhoef, Hubertus J M; Tummers, Gladys; Landeweerd, Jan A; van Merode, Godefridus G

    2008-10-01

    The aim of this study is to explore whether the work organisation of diabetes specialist nurses (DSNs) differs significantly from nurses working in hospital and nursing home and if so, does this difference result in positive or negative consequences regarding work and health. In traditional health care settings, nurses exhibit a high level of environmental uncertainty and low decision-making authority, which has a negative effect on psychological reactions towards work. In professional nursing, specialisation, e.g. diabetic nursing, is a current trend in many countries. Therefore, insight into the determinants of the work situation of nursing specialists is becoming increasingly relevant. Comparisons were made between 3 different samples: 1204 nurses employed by 15 hospitals, 1058 nurses employed by 14 nursing homes, and 350 diabetes nurses working in other health care settings throughout the Netherlands. Data concerning organisation, work aspects, and psychological reactions were measured via questionnaires. Variances between the groups were analysed with ANCOVA, besides hierarchical multiple regression analysis was applied. Environmental uncertainty scored lower amongst diabetes nurses when compared to nurses working in the other two types of health care settings. Social support and role conflict scored low for diabetes nursing specialists who simultaneously perceived autonomy and role ambiguity highest. Diabetes nursing specialists also scored highest on intrinsic work motivation and job satisfaction and lowest for psychosomatic health. Except for social support and role ambiguity, diabetic nurses rate their [work] organisation, [work] aspects and psychological [work] reactions more positively than nurses employed in other health care settings.

  14. Let's talk about our work: Psychosocial risk factors in the working contexts of agricultural technicians in Argentina

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rossana Cacivio

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available We evaluated the exposure to psychosocial risk factors in agents of the Agricultural Extension Services in Argentina. We surveyed 152 extension workers from two organisations and several Argentine provinces with the CoPsoQ-ISTAS 21 instrument and discussed the results with 67 of these professionals during a postgraduate course of the PLIDER Masters. This course worked for the extension workers as a Clinic of the activity, allowing them to manage their own resources when facing stress caused by exposure to risk factors. The research was reinforced with 15 in-depth interviews. The results show a strong exposure to psychosocial risk factors, where the prevailing causes derive from the form how work is organised in each host institution, the high emotional component of the job role, and the difference between men and women in terms of autonomy in its performance, the inherent demands of the hierarchical position, the conflict of the ambiguity of the role and, consequently, its mental load.

  15. Sex and Employment-Setting Differences in Work-Family Conflict in Athletic Training.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mazerolle, Stephanie M; Eason, Christianne M; Pitney, William A; Mueller, Megan N

    2015-09-01

    Work-family conflict (WFC) has received much attention in athletic training, yet several factors related to this phenomenon have not been examined, specifically a practitioner's sex, occupational setting, willingness to leave the profession, and willingness to use work-leave benefits. To examine how sex and occupational differences in athletic training affect WFC and to examine willingness to leave the profession and use work-leave benefits. Cross-sectional study. Multiple occupational settings, including clinic/outreach, education, collegiate, industrial, professional sports, secondary school, and sales. A total of 246 athletic trainers (ATs) (men = 110, women = 136) participated. Of these, 61.4% (n = 151) were between 20 and 39 years old. Participants responded to a previously validated and reliable WFC instrument. We created and validated a 3-item instrument that assessed willingness to use work-leave benefits, which demonstrated good internal consistency (Cronbach α = 0.88), as well as a single question about willingness to leave the profession. The mean (± SD) WFC score was 16.88 ± 4.4 (range = 5 [least amount of conflict] to 25 [highest amount of conflict]). Men scored 17.01 ± 4.5, and women scored 16.76 ± 4.36, indicating above-average WFC. We observed no difference between men and women based on conflict scores (t244 = 0.492, P = .95) or their willingness to leave the profession (t244 = -1.27, P = .21). We noted differences among ATs in different practice settings (F8,245 = 5.015, P work-leave benefits (2-tailed r = -0.533, P work-leave benefits was different among practice settings (F8,245 = 3.01, P = .003). The ATs employed in traditional practice settings reported higher levels of WFC. Male and female ATs had comparable experiences of WFC and willingness to leave the profession.

  16. A Longitudinal Examination of Work-Life Balance in the Collegiate Setting.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mazerolle, Stephanie; Eason, Christianne

    2016-03-01

    The literature regarding work-life balance (WLB) is plentiful, particularly in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I collegiate setting due to its demanding nature as defined by work hours and travel. Despite the comprehensive understanding of factors contributing to WLB for athletic trainers (ATs) in this setting, the effect of time of year has yet to be investigated. To determine the influence sport season timing (ie, preseason, in-season, off-season) can have on perceptions and experiences of WLB for ATs. Qualitative, case-study design. Division I collegiate practice setting. Six ATs employed in the Division I college setting (3 women, 3 men) volunteered and completed our study over 1 year. The average age of participants was 31.0 ± 3 years, and they had 9.0 ± 3 years of experience. We conducted semistructured one-on-one phone interviews with each participant at 4 points during the year (August, November, February, June). All interviews were transcribed verbatim. Data were analyzed inductively, and we used peer review, multiple-analyst triangulation, and member checks for credibility. Time of year (eg, competitive in-season), organizational demands (eg, hours and travel), and life stage (eg, roles assumed) were factors that influenced WLB for ATs in the collegiate setting. Having a positive and adaptable mind-set; having coworker, supervisor, and personal support; and engaging in personal or family time were factors that counterbalanced the inhibitors. Our results indicate that a career as an AT in the collegiate setting can create WLB concerns; these concerns, however, seem to peak during the competitive in-season for the AT's primary coverage team. Additionally, conflict that arises for ATs seems to be stimulated by time, as work roles are often less accommodating due to the athletic atmosphere.

  17. Work characteristics and pesticide exposures among migrant agricultural families: a community-based research approach.

    OpenAIRE

    McCauley, L A; Lasarev, M R; Higgins, G; Rothlein, J; Muniz, J; Ebbert, C; Phillips, J

    2001-01-01

    There are few data on pesticide exposures of migrant Latino farmworker children, and access to this vulnerable population is often difficult. In this paper we describe a community-based approach to implement culturally appropriate research methods with a migrant Latino farmworker community in Oregon. Assessments were conducted in 96 farmworker homes and 24 grower homes in two agricultural communities in Oregon. Measurements included surveys of pesticide use and work protection practices and a...

  18. Decision-making guide for management of agriculture in the case of a nuclear accident

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fourrie, Laetitia; Grosjean, Francois; Adam, Didier; Pretet, Caroline; Michel, Aurelie; Fostier, Bernard; Bertrand, Sophie; Cessac, Bruno; Reales, Nicolas IRSN; Aubert, Claude

    2007-05-01

    For several years, agricultural and nuclear professionals in France have been working on how to manage the agricultural situation in the event of a nuclear accident. This work resulted in measures at both the national (Aube nuclear safety exercises in 2003, INEX3 in 2005) and international levels (EURATOM Programmes). Following on from the European FARMING (FP5) and EURANOS (FP6) works, ACTA', IRSN and six agricultural technical institutes which are specialized in agricultural production and processing network (arable crop [especially cereals, maize, pulses, potatoes and forage crops], fruits and vegetables, vine and wine, livestock farming [cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, poultry]), created a resource adapted to the French context: the Decision-aiding Tool for the Management of Agriculture in case of a Nuclear Accident. Devised for the Ministry of Agriculture services supporting state officials in a radiation emergency, this manual focuses on the early phase following the accident when the state of emergency would make discussion on countermeasures with a large stakeholder panel impossible. Supported by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and the French Nuclear Safety Authority, this project increased knowledge of post-accident management strategies and made an important contribution to the national think tank set up within the framework of the French Steering Committee for managing the post-event phase of a nuclear accident (CODIRPA). This article describes how the manual evolved throughout the project and the development of new resources

  19. Decision-making guide for management of agriculture in the case of a nuclear accident

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Reales, N.; Fourrie, L.; Quinio, C.; Grastilleur, Ch.

    2008-01-01

    For several years, agricultural and nuclear professionals in France have been working on how to manage the agricultural situation in the event of a nuclear accident. This work resulted in measures at both the national (Aube nuclear safety exercises in 2003, INEX3 in 2005) and international levels (EURATOM Programmes). Following on from the European FARMING (FP5) and EURANOS (FP6) works, ACTA', IRSN and six agricultural technical institutes which are specialized in agricultural production and processing network (arable crop [especially cereals, maize, pulses, potatoes and forage crops], fruits and vegetables, vine and wine, livestock farming [cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, poultry]), created a resource adapted to the French context: the Decision-aiding Tool for the Management of Agriculture in case of a Nuclear Accident. Devised for the Ministry of Agriculture services supporting state officials in a radiation emergency, this manual focuses on the early phase following the accident when the state of emergency would make discussion on countermeasures with a large stakeholder panel impossible. Supported by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and the French Nuclear Safety Authority, this project increased knowledge of post-accident management strategies and made an important contribution to the national think tank set up within the framework of the French Steering Committee for managing the post-event phase of a nuclear accident (CODIRPA). This article describes how the manual evolved throughout the project and the development of new resources. (authors)

  20. A Longitudinal Examination of Work-Life Balance in the Collegiate Setting

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mazerolle, Stephanie; Eason, Christianne

    2016-01-01

    Context:  The literature regarding work-life balance (WLB) is plentiful, particularly in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I collegiate setting due to its demanding nature as defined by work hours and travel. Despite the comprehensive understanding of factors contributing to WLB for athletic trainers (ATs) in this setting, the effect of time of year has yet to be investigated. Objective:  To determine the influence sport season timing (ie, preseason, in-season, off-season) can have on perceptions and experiences of WLB for ATs. Design:  Qualitative, case-study design. Setting:  Division I collegiate practice setting. Patients or Other Participants:  Six ATs employed in the Division I college setting (3 women, 3 men) volunteered and completed our study over 1 year. The average age of participants was 31.0 ± 3 years, and they had 9.0 ± 3 years of experience. Data Collection and Analysis:  We conducted semistructured one-on-one phone interviews with each participant at 4 points during the year (August, November, February, June). All interviews were transcribed verbatim. Data were analyzed inductively, and we used peer review, multiple-analyst triangulation, and member checks for credibility. Results:  Time of year (eg, competitive in-season), organizational demands (eg, hours and travel), and life stage (eg, roles assumed) were factors that influenced WLB for ATs in the collegiate setting. Having a positive and adaptable mind-set; having coworker, supervisor, and personal support; and engaging in personal or family time were factors that counterbalanced the inhibitors. Conclusions:  Our results indicate that a career as an AT in the collegiate setting can create WLB concerns; these concerns, however, seem to peak during the competitive in-season for the AT's primary coverage team. Additionally, conflict that arises for ATs seems to be stimulated by time, as work roles are often less accommodating due to the athletic atmosphere

  1. Set of information technologies and their role in automation of agricultural production

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    V. V. Al’t

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available The modern enterprises of agrarian and industrial complex are characterized by the high level of automation of technological processes. The technological development level conformto 5th and 6th technology revolutions. The automatic and automated technologies in crop production and livestock production use data of internet technologies, Global Positioning Satellite survey and observations, mashine and tractor aggregates automated operating. The models nucleus and row of information models of agricultural objects were designed on the basis of information streams systematization. The analysis of results of simulation of biological objects, cenosises, ecosystems, agro cenosises and agroecosystems showed that the most acceptable type of model is the systemically determined dynamic model of potentially effective type. The Internet-oriented database of innovative development of institutes of an agrarian profile is designed. It contains the information about sorts, machines, mechanization means, electrification and technologies in crop production, livestock production, forage production, feed processing, crop protection, biotechnologies, mechanization, veterinary science and agricultural production processing. The database is positioned as the subject-oriented, retrieval database in web space. The list of indices to which the created architecture of the database corresponds is defined. More than 20 various databases of agricultural purpose which are used in educational process and production are created. These databases are useful to agricultural producers and also organizers of agricultural production, scientists, teachers and students. Information on key indicators of innovative products and institutes – developers of innovative solutions is provided in a basis.

  2. Professional risk of developing diseases of the peripheral nervous system in tractor drivers – machine operators of agricultural production

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    G.A. Bezrukova

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available Based on the results of the hygienic assessment of working conditions in the domestic agricultural machinery of old and new models when performing the main types of seasonal agricultural work during the annual production cycle and analysis of accumulated occupational diseases’ nosology structure in agricultural workers of the Saratov region over the period from 2004 to 2014, the estimation of professional risk diseases of the peripheral nervous system in tractor drivers – machine operators of agricultural production is given. Professional risk assessment carried out under the procedure set forth in P2.2.1766-03 has shown that the category of a priori risk to their health during an annual production cycle ranged from high to very high (unbearable. It was revealed that the most important factors shaping the harmful working conditions when working on agricultural machinery that can act as a trigger in the formation of vertebral diseases of the peripheral nervous system, are general and local vibration, adverse micro-climatic conditions, long uncomfortable static working posture and physical stress. The risk of diseases in the peripheral uneven system in machine operators of agriculture was attributed to the high risk category with an index of professional diseases (IPD equal to 0,5 %.

  3. Career Preparation in Agriculture Project. Career Preparation Programs for Potential Agribusinessmen, Agricultural Agency Employees, and Agriculture Teachers. Final Report, July 1, 1977-June 30, 1978.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Jasper S.; And Others

    The purpose of this project was to develop innovative agricultural education programs within the comprehensive high school setting in selected school districts in Mississippi. The following programs were implemented: horticulture (Starkville Vocational Center); vocational forestry (Lamar County); agricultural suppliers and services program (Alcorn…

  4. Diesel Consumption of Agriculture in China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shusen Gui

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available As agricultural mechanization accelerates the development of agriculture in China, to control the growth of the resulting energy consumption of mechanized agriculture without negatively affecting economic development has become a major challenge. A systematic analysis of the factors (total power, unit diesel consumption, etc. influencing diesel consumption using the SECA model, combined with simulations on agricultural diesel flows in China between 1996 and 2010 is performed in this work. Seven agricultural subsectors, fifteen categories of agricultural machinery and five farm operations are considered. The results show that farming and transportation are the two largest diesel consumers, accounting for 86.23% of the total diesel consumption in agriculture in 2010. Technological progress has led to a decrease in the unit diesel consumption and an increase in the unit productivity of all machinery, and there is still much potential for future progress. Additionally, the annual average working hours have decreased rapidly for most agricultural machinery, thereby influencing the development of mechanized agriculture.

  5. Arbeid door jongeren in de agrarische sector : mogelijkheden voor veilig en gezond werken = Employment of younger people in the agricultural sector : possibilities for safe and healthy work

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Oude Vrielink, H.H.E.; Ruigewaard, P.; Tamsma, P.

    2006-01-01

    An ongoing discussion in the Netherlands between employers and the Labour Inspectorate about the interpretation of legal rules of employing youth in agricultural work situations is addressed. A working group, consisting of representatives of agricultural employers, employees, government, Labour

  6. Environmentally sustainable agriculture and future developments of the CAP

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nielsen, Helle Ørsted; Pedersen, Anders Branth; Christensen, Tove

    2009-01-01

    Recent reforms of the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) have set in motion a process of increased market orientation in the agricultural sector, a process that will be intensified by trade liberalization if an agreement is reached under the World Trade Organization (WTO). It is wi......Recent reforms of the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) have set in motion a process of increased market orientation in the agricultural sector, a process that will be intensified by trade liberalization if an agreement is reached under the World Trade Organization (WTO...... in the world market could increase pressure to slacken regulatory requirements on agriculture. Thus, the question of whether liberalization will hinder or promote environmentally sustainable production methods in agriculture is unresolved. This paper analyses different scenarios of agricultural policy...

  7. Supervised Agricultural Experience Programmes (SAEP) and Work Linked Education (WLE): Panacea for Empowering Youths and Preventing Joblessness

    Science.gov (United States)

    Famiwole, Remigius O.

    2015-01-01

    Youths from Nigerian schools and tertiary institutions are usually unemployable after schooling because they are not empowered with the required saleable skills to earn them a job or with which to establish as entrepreneurs. This paper examines the relevance of Supervised Agricultural Experience Programme (SAEP) and Work Linked Education (WLE) as…

  8. Nigerian agriculture workers’ outcomes from perceived organisational support and protestant work ethics: Job satisfaction as a mediator

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Olugbenga J. Ladebo

    2011-10-01

    Research purpose: The present study hypothesised that job satisfaction mediated the relationships between the predictors (perceived organisational support and protestant work ethics and outcomes (organisational citizenship behaviours and organisational commitment. Motivation for the study: There is paucity of literature on the mediating influence of job satisfaction on predictors-outcomes linkages amongst agriculture workers in Nigeria. Available studies either examined the main effect of perceived organisational support on citizenship behaviours or the mediating influence of satisfaction on citizenship behaviours and not the proposed model. Research design, approach and method: The present study was survey-correlational in design. Data were obtained from 223 heterogeneous samples from different organisations (such as ministry of agriculture, parastatals, banks, private agro-allied companies, and insurance companies. Main findings: Results showed that job satisfaction fully mediated the relationship between perceived organisational support and citizenship behaviours and partially mediated the relationship between perceived organisational support and organisational commitment. Further, employee satisfaction partially mediated the relationships between protestant work ethics and citizenship behaviours and organisational commitment. Practical/managerial implications: This study indicated that both protestant work ethics and perceived organisational support are important in motivating employees to engage in cooperative behaviours and exhibit greater commitment through job satisfaction. Contribution/value-add: The present study showed that job satisfaction is a mediator linking both perceived organisational support and protestant work ethics to organisational commitment and citizenship behaviours.

  9. Cost estimation of the future harvest as agricultural loan collateral

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vnukova, N. N.

    2013-07-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this work is to attempt developing recommendations which may improve the overall banking technique of future cropping cost estimating. Objectives that have been set to achieve this aim are: to analyze alternative techniques of future cropping cost estimating; to perform calculation according to the selected techniques for 10 agricultural companies from different regions of Ukraine; to compare the techniques by means of hierarchy analysis method.

  10. Managing a work-life balance: the experiences of midwives working in a group practice setting.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fereday, Jennifer; Oster, Candice

    2010-06-01

    To explore how a group of midwives achieved a work-life balance working within a caseload model of care with flexible work hours and on-call work. in-depth interviews were conducted and the data were analysed using a data-driven thematic analysis technique. Children, Youth and Women's Health Service (CYWHS) (previously Women's and Children's Hospital), Adelaide, where a midwifery service known as Midwifery Group Practice (MGP) offers a caseload model of care to women within a midwife-managed unit. 17 midwives who were currently working, or had previously worked, in MGP. analysis of the midwives' individual experiences provided insight into how midwives managed the flexible hours and on-call work to achieve a sustainable work-life balance within a caseload model of care. it is important for midwives working in MGP to actively manage the flexibility of their role with time on call. Organisational, team and individual structure influenced how flexibility of hours was managed; however, a period of adjustment was required to achieve this balance. the study findings offer a description of effective, sustainable strategies to manage flexible hours and on-call work that may assist other midwives working in a similar role or considering this type of work setting. Copyright 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  11. Research on Supply Chain Coordination of Fresh Agricultural Products under Agricultural Insurance

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhang Pei

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Based on the fact that the current fresh agricultural products are susceptible to natural risks and the coordination of supply chain is poor, This paper constructs the supply chain profit model under the two models of natural risk and agricultural insurance, Firstly, studying the coordination function of the supply chain system under Two-part Tariff; Then discussing the setting and claiming mechanism of agricultural insurance, compares the influence of agricultural insurance on supply chain profit and supply chain coordination; Finally, giving an example to validate the model results and give decision - making opinions. Research shows that the supply chain of fresh agricultural products can coordinated under Two-part Tariff, but the supply chain cooperation is poor in the natural risk , need to further stabilize and optimize the supply chain; When the risk factor is less than the non-participation insurance coefficient, not to participate in agricultural insurance is conducive to maintaining the coordination of the supply chain system; When the risk coefficient exceeds the non-participation insurance coefficient, the introduction of agricultural insurance can not only effectively manage the natural risks, but also help to improve the coordination of the supply chain system.

  12. The Influence of Attention Set, Working Memory Capacity, and Expectations on Inattentional Blindness.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kreitz, Carina; Furley, Philip; Memmert, Daniel; Simons, Daniel J

    2016-04-01

    The probability of inattentional blindness, the failure to notice an unexpected object when attention is engaged on some primary task, is influenced by contextual factors like task demands, features of the unexpected object, and the observer's attention set. However, predicting who will notice an unexpected object and who will remain inattentionally blind has proven difficult, and the evidence that individual differences in cognition affect noticing remains ambiguous. We hypothesized that greater working memory capacity might modulate the effect of attention sets on noticing because working memory is associated with the ability to focus attention selectively. People with greater working memory capacity might be better able to attend selectively to target items, thereby increasing the chances of noticing unexpected objects that were similar to the attended items while decreasing the odds of noticing unexpected objects that differed from the attended items. Our study (N = 120 participants) replicated evidence that task-induced attention sets modulate noticing but found no link between noticing and working memory capacity. Our results are largely consistent with the idea that individual differences in working memory capacity do not predict noticing of unexpected objects in an inattentional blindness task. © The Author(s) 2015.

  13. Sustainable Urban Agriculture in Ghana: What Governance System Works?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Eileen Bogweh Nchanji

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Urban farming takes advantage of its proximity to market, transport and other urban infrastructure to provide food for the city and sustain the livelihoods of urban and peri-urban dwellers. It is an agricultural activity which employs more than 50% of the local urban population with positive and negative impacts on local and national development. Urban agriculture is an informal activity not supported by law but in practice is regulated to a certain extent by state institutions, traditional rulers, farmers and national and international non-governmental organisations. Tamale’s rapid population growth, exacerbated by the unplanned development system and institutional conflicts, are factors contributing to the present bottlenecks in the urban agricultural system. In this paper, these bottlenecks are conceptualised as problems of governance. These issues will be illustrated using ethnographic data from land sales, crop-livestock competition, waste-water irrigation, and markets. I will explain how conflicts which arise from these different situations are resolved through the interactions of various governance systems. Informal governance arrangements are widespread, but neither they nor formal systems are always successful in resolving governance issues. A participatory governance does not seem possible due to actors’ divergent interests. A governance solution for this sector is not yet apparent, contributing to food and nutritional insecurity.

  14. AGRICULTURE AND AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVES IN JAPAN - A MODEL FOR COOPERATIVIZATION OF AGRICULTURE FROM ROMANIA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Remus Gherman

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available Japan's agriculture provides only a part from the population's needs, in caloric terms Japan must impute 60% of foods. Arable land are few, but are worked very performant, rice being the main crop together with cotton, citrus, sugarcane, wheat, potato, soybean, sugar beet, other vegetables. Widely is practiced sericulture and fisheries, Japan being one of the leading producers of silk from the world and having over 600 ports specialized for fishing. Japanese agriculture has remained behind the industry and services, this trend being manifested after the very high economic growth from 1960-1970. The main focus of the movements from the Japanese cooperative system is represented by the creation of large specialized farms through the replacing of the traditional ones. The most important task of agricultural cooperatives from Japan is meeting the consumption needs of its members. Integrated leadership of Japanese cooperatives of farmers act at all levels, primary, at prefecture level and at national level. Contractual relationships play a decisive role in the integration of Japanese farmers. In Japan there are about 840 agricultural cooperatives very well organized with a balanced planning and efficiently conducted, agricultural cooperative MIKABI being the most developed, mainly focused on the production of mandarins. In Japan there are three large distribution centers of agricultural products, 29 distribution markets controlled by the prefecture and 1,000 local markets. Organization of cooperatives is the pyramid system on three levels: local, prefecture and national (National Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives.

  15. Fatal accidents at work in agriculture associated with alcohol intoxication in Lower Silesia in Poland.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jurek, Tomasz; Rorat, Marta

    2017-02-28

    Determining the prevalence of alcohol intoxication and the level of intoxication in victims of fatal occupational accidents is necessary to improve work safety. The circumstances of the accident and the time between alcohol consumption and death are important factors. A retrospective review of 18 935 medico-legal autopsy reports and toxicological reports performed in the Department of Forensic Medicine at the Wroclaw Medical University, Poland, in the years 1991-2014. The study protocol included circumstances, time and cause of death, injuries, quantitative testing for the presence of ethyl alcohol, gender and age. There were 98 farm-related fatalities. There were 41.8% (N = 41) of victims who had been intoxicated - 95.1% (N = 39) of them were males aged 19-70 years old, 4,9% (N = 2) were females aged 37-65 years old. In 8 cases the blood alcohol concentration (BAC) was 50-150 mg/dl; in 15 cases it was 150-250 mg/dl and in 18 cases it was > 250 mg/dl. In 21 cases, the BAC was determined using alternative material and 76% (N = 16) victims were in the alcohol elimination phase with 19% (N = 4) victims in the alcohol absorption phase. The most common causes of death were traffic accidents, drowning and deaths resulting from being caught in or hit by moving parts of machinery or equipment. Alcohol consumption is a crucial risk factor in fatal agricultural accidents. In order to establish the time of alcohol consumption, all victims of agricultural accidents should be tested for alcohol concentration in their blood and urine or vitreous. Improving safety at work requires that the sobriety of employees should be monitored before and during work. Med Pr 2017;68(1):23-30. This work is available in Open Access model and licensed under a CC BY-NC 3.0 PL license.

  16. The history and future of agricultural experiments

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Maat, H.

    2011-01-01

    An agricultural experiment is usually associated with a scientific method for testing certain agricultural phenomena. A central point in the work of Paul Richards is that experimentation is at the heart of agricultural practice. The reason why agricultural experiments are something different for

  17. Global Agricultural Trade and Developing Countries

    OpenAIRE

    Aksoy, M. Ataman; Beghin, John C.

    2005-01-01

    Global Agricultural Trade and Developing Countries explores the outstanding issues in global agricultural trade policy and evolving world production and trade patterns. This book presents research findings based on a series of commodity studies of significant economic importance to developing countries. Setting the stage with background chapters and investigations of cross-cutting issues, the authors describe trade and domestic policy regimes affecting agricultural and food markets and analyz...

  18. Mapping agricultural landscapes and characterizing adaptive capacity in Central America

    Science.gov (United States)

    Holland, M. B.; Imbach, P. A.; Bouroncle, C.; Donatti, C.; Leguia, E.; Martinez, M.; Medellin, C.; Saborio-Rodriguez, M.; Shamer, S.; Zamora, J.

    2013-12-01

    One of the key challenges in developing adaptation strategies for smallholder farmers in developing countries is that of a data-poor environment, where spatially-explicit information about where the most vulnerable smallholder communities are located is lacking. Developing countries tend to lack consistent and reliable maps on agricultural land use, and have limited information available on smallholder adaptive capacity. We developed a novel participatory and expert mapping process to overcome these barriers and develop detailed national-scale maps that allow for a characterization of unique agricultural landscapes based on profiles of adaptive capacity for smallholder agriculture in each area. This research focuses specifically on the Central American nations of Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Honduras, where our focus is on coffee and basic grains as the two main cropping systems. Here we present the methodology and results of a series of in-depth interviews and participatory mapping sessions with experts working within the broader agricultural sector in each country. We held individual interviews and mapping sessions with approximately thirty experts from each country, and used a detailed survey instrument for each mapping session to both spatially identify distinct agricultural landscapes, and to further characterize each area based on specific farm practices and social context. The survey also included a series of questions to help us assess the relative adaptive capacity of smallholder agriculture within each landscape. After all expert mapping sessions were completed in each country we convened an expert group to assist in both validating and refining the set of landscapes already defined. We developed a characterization of adaptive capacity by aggregating indicators into main assets-based criteria (e.g. land tenure, access to credit, access to technical assistance, sustainable farm practices) derived from further expert weighting of indicators through an online

  19. Heroes of Civilization. The Amazon Region as Agricultural Export Cosmopolis in the Work of General Rafael Reyes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Felipe Martínez Pinzón

    2013-07-01

    the isthmus led the Colombian elites to rethink other border spaces. The article analyzes the discourse of appropriation of the Amazon territory set forth by President, General, and entrepreneur Rafael Reyes (1849-1921 in speeches lectures, travel diaries, and autobiographical memoirs. On the basis of those materials, the article argues that instead of nationalizing the Amazonian territory, Reyes suggesting incorporating it into the dynamics of global capitalism through the contradictory proposal of an “agricultural export cosmopolis” aimed at exploiting the region’s wealth. The contradictions of a segregationist cosmopolis, as a narrative of globalization in the early 20th century, also led General Reyes to represent the entrepreneurs of the agricultural frontier as “heroes of civilization”, a phrase that betrays the anachronism and irrationalism inherent in the allegedly indestructible rational discourse of civilization in the tropics.

  20. [Effects of agricultural practices on community structure of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in agricultural ecosystem: a review].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sheng, Ping-Ping; Li, Min; Liu, Run-Jin

    2011-06-01

    Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi are rich in diversity in agricultural ecosystem, playing a vital role based on their unique community structure. Host plants and environmental factors have important effects on AM fungal community structure, so do the agricultural practices which deserve to pay attention to. This paper summarized the research advances in the effects of agricultural practices such as irrigation, fertilization, crop rotation, intercropping, tillage, and pesticide application on AM fungal community structure, analyzed the related possible mechanisms, discussed the possible ways in improving AM fungal community structure in agricultural ecosystem, and put forward a set of countermeasures, i.e., improving fertilization system and related integrated techniques, increasing plant diversity in agricultural ecosystem, and inoculating AM fungi, to enhance the AM fungal diversity in agricultural ecosystem. The existing problems in current agricultural practices and further research directions were also proposed.

  1. Glossary on agricultural landscapes.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kruse, A.; Centeri, C.; Renes, J.; Roth, M.; Printsman, A.; Palang, H.; Benito Jorda, M.-D.; Verlarde, M.D.; Kruckenberg, H.

    2010-01-01

    T he following glossary of terms related to the European agricultural landscape shall serve as a common basis for all parties, working in or on agricultural landscapes. Some of the terms are quite common and sometimes used in our every day language, but they often have different meanings in

  2. Technologies for climate change adaptation. Agriculture sector

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Zhu, X [ed.; UNEP Risoe Centre, Roskilde (Denmark); Clements, R; Quezada, A; Torres, J [Practical Action Latin America, Lima (Peru); Haggar, J [Univ. of Greenwich, London (United Kingdom)

    2011-08-15

    This guidebook presents a selection of technologies for climate change adaptation in the agriculture sector. A set of 22 adaptation technologies are showcased. These are based primarily on the principles of agroecology, but also include scientific technologies of climate and biological sciences complemented by important sociological and institutional capacity building processes that are required for climate change to function. The technologies cover: 1) Planning for climate change and variability. 2) Sustainable water use and management. 3) Soil management. 4) Sustainable crop management. 5) Sustainable livestock management. 6) Sustainable farming systems. 7) Capacity building and stakeholder organisation. Technologies that tend to homogenise the natural environment and agricultural production have low possibilities of success in environmental stress conditions that are likely to result from climate change. On the other hand, technologies that allow for, and promote diversity are more likely to provide a strategy which strengthens agricultural production in the face of uncertain future climate change scenarios. The 22 technologies showcased in this guidebook have been selected because they facilitate the conservation and restoration of diversity while also providing opportunities for increasing agricultural productivity. Many of these technologies are not new to agricultural production practices, but they are implemented based on the assessment of current and possible future impacts of climate change in a particular location. agroecology is an approach that encompasses concepts of sustainable production and biodiversity promotion and therefore provides a useful framework for identifying and selecting appropriate adaptation technologies for the agriculture sector. The guidebook provides a systematic analysis of the most relevant information available on climate change adaptation technologies in the agriculture sector. It has been compiled based on a literature

  3. Agriculture and private sector

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sahin, Sila; Prowse, Martin Philip; Weigh, Nadia

    and this looks set to remain for the next two decades at least. The agriculture and growth evidence paper series has been developed to cover a range of issues that are of most relevance to DFID staff. The paper is not intended to be a comprehensive overview of all issues relating to agriculture and the private...... sector. It concentrates on those areas that are of particular focus for DFID policy and strategy....

  4. Science Credit for Agriculture: Perceived Support, Preferred Implementation Methods and Teacher Science Course Work.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Johnson, Donald M.

    1996-01-01

    Arkansas agriculture teachers (213 of 259 surveyed) expressed support for granting science credit for agriculture (88.8%); 65.6% supported science credit for a limited number of agriculture courses. Blanket endorsement for all certified agriculture teachers was favored by 71.5%; 56.6% preferred endorsement only for certified teachers completing an…

  5. [Work quota setting and man-hour productivity estimation in pathologists].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Svistunov, V V; Makarov, S V; Makarova, A E

    The paper considers the development and current state of the regulation of work quota setting and remuneration in pathologists. Reasoning from the current staff standards for morbid anatomy departments (units), the authors present a method to calculate the load of pathologists. The essence of the proposed method is demonstrated using a specific example.

  6. INSPIA project: European Index for Sustainable and Productive Agriculture

    Science.gov (United States)

    Triviño-Tarradas, Paula; Jesús González-Sánchez, Emilio; Gómez-Ariza, Manuel; Rass, Gerard; Gardette, Sophie; Whitmore, Gavin; Dyson, Jeremy

    2017-04-01

    The concept of sustainable development has evolved from a mere perception for the protection of the environment, to a holistic approach, seeking to preserve not only the environment, but also to achieve sustainability in economics and social wellbeing. Globally, there is a major challenge to face in the agricultural sector: to produce more food, feed and other raw materials to satisfy the increasing demand of a growing population, whilst also contributing to economic prosperity, climate change mitigation / adaptation, social wellbeing and preserving natural capital such as soil, water, biodiversity and other ecosystem services. Nowadays, conventional approaches to agriculture are under threat. A more productive and resource efficient agriculture that integrates natural resource protection into its approach will help to meet all these challenges, enabling us to have more of everything - more food, more feed, more non-food crops, more biodiversity and natural habitats - while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In this context, INSPIA is an innovative approach that has worked since 2013 towards demonstration that sustainable productive agriculture is possible thanks to the implementation of a host of best management practices (BMPs) capable of delivering the above achievements. The purpose on INSPIA is to make visible with European decision makers that a sustainable and productive agricultural model exists in a small scale in Europe and that wider dissemination is possible with enabling legislation. INSPIA is demonstrating sustainable agriculture through the implementation of BMPs and the measurement and monitoring of a set of defined indicators (economic, social and environmental ones). INSPIA promotes sustainable practices that protect biodiversity, soils and water and contribute towards maintaining ecosystems services. This holistic sustainable system of productive agriculture is based on the combination of Conservation Agriculture (CA) and Integrated Pest

  7. Sustainability of Smallholder Agriculture in Semi-Arid Areas under Land Set-aside Programs: A Case Study from China’s Loess Plateau

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Qirui Li

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available This article analyzes agricultural sustainability in the context of land degradation, rural poverty and social inequality, taking China’s Loess Hills as an example. The analysis attempts to understand the multi-dimensionality of sustainability at the farm level and its relationship with physical-socio-economic-infrastructural-technological framework conditions in the context of the land set-aside program viz. the Grain for Green Project (GGP. We developed composite indices of sustainability and its environmental, economic and social dimensions using a principal component analysis (PCA-based weighting scheme. Regression analyses were conducted to examine the relationship between the estimated sustainability indicators and the variables representing framework conditions of knowledge, demographics, resource endowment and production techniques. The stated analysis was conducted on a dataset collected by means of household surveys in 2014 in valleys and flood plain areas in Yanhe Township. Findings reveal hidden correlations among the indicators of environmental, economic, and social pillars of sustainability. The ratio of land under the conservation program to actual farmland emerged as a key determinant of overall agricultural sustainability and its social dimension, which reaches the maximum when the ratio is around 0.56 and 0.64, respectively. The results also show that there is need to balance off-farm and on-farm income diversification as well as highlight the role of women in ensuring the sustainability of farming households. The core achievement of the article is the definition of the thresholds for the land set-aside program and the identification of major determinants of agricultural sustainability in the rural Chinese context in particular and in rural farming communities in general.

  8. Teaching Social Skills to Enhance Work Performance in a Child Care Setting

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gear, Sabra; Bobzien, Jonna; Judge, Sharon; Raver, Sharon A.

    2011-01-01

    Adults with intellectual disabilities face difficulty seeking employment in the community workforce. Using a single-subject design, this study examined the utility of role playing and self-management strategies to enhance work performance by promoting the social skills of a young woman with Down syndrome working in a community child care setting.…

  9. Nonfatal agricultural work-related injuries: A case study from Northeast India.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Patel, Thaneswer; Pranav, P K; Biswas, M

    2018-01-01

    Occupational injuries are a major problem in agriculture worldwide. In the Northeast region of India, most of the farm operations are carried out manually with hand operated tools and equipment. These tools also cause some nonfatal accidents. In the absence of reliable data on accidents in this region, injury prevention policy cannot be madeOBJECTIVE:The aim of this study was to survey injury causing agricultural accidents occurring during 2010 to 2013 in Arunachal Pradesh of the northeast region to know their magnitude, causes and severity. In this study, four districts of Arunachal Pradesh namely Papum Pare, Lower Subansiri, West Siang and East Siang were chosen using purposive sampling. From each district, 15 villages were selected. In these villages, a total of 50614 agricultural workers participated and 174 and 48 injuries were found for male and female workers respectively. A case-control study was carried out in Arunachal Pradesh. The questionnaire-based approach was used for data collection. The questionnaire contains detailed information on the demographic and injury characteristics. The Demographic information included gender, age, educational background, etc. and injury characteristics included the nature of the injury, the body part injured, and type of tools and equipment that caused the injury. The results showed that farm tools and equipment-related accidents were maximum i.e. 144 (60%) caused due to dao followed by 19 from spade (8%), 18 from sickle (7%) and 8 from axe (3%). The foot and legs were the most frequently injured body parts. From this study, it was also revealed that male agricultural workers are more affected as compared to their female counterparts. Agricultural accident incident rate (AIR) was found to be 589 per 1,00,000 workers per year. The AIR for males is 462 per 100,000 workers per year which is 3.6 times higher than female workers. The root causes of accidents are the use of traditional tools and equipment in various

  10. Farmers’ Cohort for Agricultural Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders (FARM) Study: Study Design, Methods, and Baseline Characteristics of Enrolled Subjects

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jo, Hannae; Baek, Sora; Park, Hee-won; Lee, Sang-Ah; Moon, Jiyoung; Yang, Jae E.; Kim, Ki Sung; Kim, Jee Yong; Kang, Eun Kyoung

    2016-01-01

    Background The ongoing Farmers’ Cohort for Agricultural Work-related Musculoskeletal Disorders (FARM) study was developed to evaluate health status and related factors in farmers. Methods Farmers in Kangwon Province, South Korea, were recruited. Baseline characteristics were determined using questionnaires about sociodemographic and health characteristics and agricultural work-related factors. In addition, laboratory examinations (lumbar spinal radiography and serologic testing) were conducted. Results The FARM study covers eight rural areas and recruited 1013 subjects (534 women; mean [standard deviation {SD}] age, 57.2 [7.5] years). Musculoskeletal pain in multiple areas was reported by 925 subjects (91.3%), and low back pain (63.8%) was the most frequent site of pain. Farmer’s Stress Inventory (mean [SD], 77.7 [10.2]; range, 28–112] and subjective stress index (mean [SD], 5.3 [2.4]; range, 0–10) were above median scale values, reflecting a stressful condition, while the EuroQol-5D-3L index and the EuroQol-Visual Analog Scale scores were high (mean [SD], 0.9 [0.1]; range −0.171–1 and mean [SD], 67.7 [18.7]; range 0–100, respectively), reflecting good life quality. In total, 53% of participants had worked in farming for more than 30 years, and workers involved in dry-field farming comprised the largest subgroup (41.5%). Most participants (94.3%) had no more than a high school education, and families with annual income below 20 million won constituted the largest subgroup (36.3%). Conclusions The FARM study may provide data on the current health status and related sociodemographic and agricultural work-related risk factors in Korean farmers, with the goal of providing a scientific basis for developing coping interventions and preventive strategies. PMID:26235456

  11. Trends in family labour, hired labour and contract work on french fieldcrop farms: the role of agricultural policies

    OpenAIRE

    Dupraz, Pierre; Latruffe, Laure

    2010-01-01

    This article analyses the factors driving the evolution of on-farm labour use, including own family labour, hired labour and contract work, in French fieldcrop farms during 1990-2007. Particular attention is given to the level and type of agricultural support. The increase in the farm labour force over the years is due to increases in hired labour and contract work which are complements for each other rather than substitutes, and complement for family labour. Crop area payments and Single Far...

  12. Working in a demanding environment: employee wellbeing in secure forensic settings

    OpenAIRE

    Cooper, Amelia

    2016-01-01

    Introduction: Care professionals suffering with poor wellbeing is a phenomenon that has been found to have a damaging effect upon individual employees, service users and organisations. Employees working in forensic settings are believed to be at increased risk of damaged wellbeing due to the unique demands of their working environment, including exposure to violence and aggression. This issue was addressed in two ways. Firstly, a systematic review of the literature on the ef...

  13. Do Price Incentives Work in Incomplete Food Agricultural Marketing ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    2014-05-01

    May 1, 2014 ... in rural agricultural marketing systems by examining issues in ... tool requires both medium – and long-term state-led investments ... food needs, food productivity is still considered low due to low returns on farmer-output.

  14. An integrated approach to monitoring ecosystem services and agriculture: implications for sustainable agricultural intensification in Rwanda.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rosa, Melissa F; Bonham, Curan A; Dempewolf, Jan; Arakwiye, Bernadette

    2017-01-01

    Maintaining the long-term sustainability of human and natural systems across agricultural landscapes requires an integrated, systematic monitoring system that can track crop productivity and the impacts of agricultural intensification on natural resources. This study presents the design and practical implementation of a monitoring framework that combines satellite observations with ground-based biophysical measurements and household surveys to provide metrics on ecosystem services and agricultural production at multiple spatial scales, reaching from individual households and plots owned by smallholder farmers to 100-km 2 landscapes. We developed a set of protocols for monitoring and analyzing ecological and agricultural household parameters within two 10 × 10-km landscapes in Rwanda, including soil fertility, crop yield, water availability, and fuelwood sustainability. Initial results suggest providing households that rely on rainfall for crop irrigation with timely climate information and improved technical inputs pre-harvest could help increase crop productivity in the short term. The value of the monitoring system is discussed as an effective tool for establishing a baseline of ecosystem services and agriculture before further change in land use and climate, identifying limitations in crop production and soil fertility, and evaluating food security, economic development, and environmental sustainability goals set forth by the Rwandan government.

  15. Profitability Analysis for Agricultural Investment Projects

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Florina Oana VIRLANUTA

    2011-11-01

    Full Text Available In agriculture production is based on a process both economically as well as the biological one, the work results are influenced, more than any branch of economic, natural and climatic conditions are subject to higher risk and permanently. Due to the features of production in agriculture, we believe that it is necessary such as performance agricultural units to be assessed under a system of specific indicators. The correct assessment units are closely related agricultural economic-financial investment in agriculture. In the following we present and analyze a complex system of specific performance indicators of the extremely for assessing agricultural units.

  16. Social Work Student and Practitioner Roles in Integrated Care Settings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fraher, Erin P; Richman, Erica Lynn; Zerden, Lisa de Saxe; Lombardi, Brianna

    2018-06-01

    Social workers are increasingly being deployed in integrated medical and behavioral healthcare settings but information about the roles they fill in these settings is not well understood. This study sought to identify the functions that social workers perform in integrated settings and identify where they acquired the necessary skills to perform them. Master of social work students (n=21) and their field supervisors (n=21) who were part of a Health Resources and Services Administration-funded program to train and expand the behavioral health workforce in integrated settings were asked how often they engaged in 28 functions, where they learned to perform those functions, and the degree to which their roles overlapped with others on the healthcare team. The most frequent functions included employing cultural competency, documenting in the electronic health record, addressing patient social determinants of health, and participating in team-based care. Respondents were least likely to engage in case conferences; use Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment; use stepped care to determine necessary level of treatment; conduct functional assessments of daily living skills; use behavioral activation; and use problem-solving therapy. A total of 80% of respondents reported that their roles occasionally, often, very often, or always overlapped with others on the healthcare team. Students reported learning the majority of skills (76%) in their Master of Social Work programs. Supervisors attributed the majority (65%) of their skill development to on-the-job training. Study findings suggest the need to redesign education, regulatory, and payment to better support the deployment of social workers in integrated care settings. This article is part of a supplement entitled The Behavioral Health Workforce: Planning, Practice, and Preparation, which is sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the Health Resources and Services

  17. Perspectives on parenthood and working of female athletic trainers in the secondary school and collegiate settings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kahanov, Leamor; Loebsack, Alice R; Masucci, Matthew A; Roberts, Jeff

    2010-01-01

    Female athletic trainers (ATs) are currently underrepresented in the collegiate setting. Parenting and family obligations may play a role in this underrepresentation. To examine female ATs' perspectives on parenting and working in the secondary school and collegiate employment settings. Cross-sectional study. Online survey. A total of 1000 nonstudent, female certified ATs who were currently members of the National Athletic Trainers' Association. An original survey was developed to assess perceptions related to motherhood and work responsibilities. Descriptive statistics were used to assess age, years of experience as a certified AT, employment position, and parent or nonparent status. A correlation matrix was conducted to determine factors among parent and nonparent status, perceptions of motherhood, and employment-setting decisions. Of the 1000 surveys sent via e-mail, 411 (41.1%) female ATs responded. Responses indicated that a majority of the female ATs worked in the secondary school setting. Sixty-one percent of the respondents did not have children. Past female ATs' experiences indicated a perception that motherhood created more challenges or struggles (or both) in the work and family settings. Whether parents considered children a factor in employment-setting changes produced conflicting results: no significant correlations or differences were found among responses. Parenting considerations had influences on both the home and employment settings. Although parents and nonparents had different views on the implications of parenting in the workplace, both groups agreed that parenting could affect the work environment and the choice to change employment settings and careers. Administrative decisions need to be considered in relation to parenting concerns. Mentoring that includes employment-setting choices relative to life goals should be provided to ATs, regardless of sex.

  18. Objectively measured total and occupational sedentary time in three work settings

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Dommelen, P. van; Coffeng, J. K.; Ploeg, H.P. van der; Beek, A.J. van der; Boot, C.R.; Hendriksen, I.J.

    2016-01-01

    Background. Sedentary behaviour increases the risk for morbidity. Our primary aim is to determine the proportion and factors associated with objectively measured total and occupational sedentary time in three work settings. Secondary aim is to study the proportion of physical activity and prolonged

  19. Agricultural Farm-Related Injuries in Bangladesh and Convenient Design of Working Hand Tools.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parvez, M S; Shahriar, M M

    2018-01-01

    Injuries during cultivation of land are the significant causes of recession for an agricultural country like Bangladesh. Thousands of tools are used in agricultural farm having much probability of getting injury at their workplaces. For the injury prevention, proper hand tool designs need to be recommended with ergonomic evaluations. This paper represents the main causes of agricultural injuries among the Bangladeshi farmers. Effective interventions had been discussed in this paper to reduce the rate of injury. This study was carried out in the Panchagarh district of Bangladesh. Data on 434 agricultural injuries were collected and recorded. About 67% injuries of all incidents were due to hand tools, and the remaining 33% were due to machinery or other sources. Though most of the injuries were not serious, about 22% injuries were greater than or equal to AIS 2 (Abbreviated Injury Scale). The practical implication of this study is to design ergonomically fit agricultural hand tools for Bangladeshi farmers in order to avoid their injuries.

  20. Agricultural Farm-Related Injuries in Bangladesh and Convenient Design of Working Hand Tools

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. S. Parvez

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Injuries during cultivation of land are the significant causes of recession for an agricultural country like Bangladesh. Thousands of tools are used in agricultural farm having much probability of getting injury at their workplaces. For the injury prevention, proper hand tool designs need to be recommended with ergonomic evaluations. This paper represents the main causes of agricultural injuries among the Bangladeshi farmers. Effective interventions had been discussed in this paper to reduce the rate of injury. This study was carried out in the Panchagarh district of Bangladesh. Data on 434 agricultural injuries were collected and recorded. About 67% injuries of all incidents were due to hand tools, and the remaining 33% were due to machinery or other sources. Though most of the injuries were not serious, about 22% injuries were greater than or equal to AIS 2 (Abbreviated Injury Scale. The practical implication of this study is to design ergonomically fit agricultural hand tools for Bangladeshi farmers in order to avoid their injuries.

  1. Motivation of Volunteers to Work in Palliative Care Setting: A Qualitative Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Muckaden, M A; Pandya, Sachi Sanjay

    2016-01-01

    Volunteers are an integral part of the palliative care services in the Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. These volunteers are an important resource for the department. Thus, it is necessary for the department to determine what motivates these volunteers to continue to work in the setting, acknowledge them and direct efforts toward retaining them and giving them opportunities to serve to the best of their desire and abilities. The current study aimed at understanding the motivation of volunteers to work in palliative care, to identify the challenges they face and also the effect of their work on their self and relationships. In-depth interviews were conducted using semistructured interview guide to study above mentioned aspects. Themes were identified and coding was used to analyze the data. The results suggested that the basic motivation for all the volunteers to work in a palliative care setting is an inherent urge, a feeling of need to give back to the society by serving the sick and the suffering. Other motivating factors identified were team spirit, comfort shared, warm and respectful treatment by the team, satisfying nature of work, experience of cancer in the family, and aligned values and beliefs. Some intrinsic rewards mentioned by volunteers were joy of giving, personal growth, enriching experiences, and meaningful nature of work. The study attempted to improve opportunities of working for these volunteers. Although limited in scope, it offers insight for future research in the area of volunteerism in palliative care setup.

  2. Fatal accidents at work in agriculture associated with alcohol intoxication in Lower Silesia in Poland

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tomasz Jurek

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available Background: Determining the prevalence of alcohol intoxication and the level of intoxication in victims of fatal occupational accidents is necessary to improve work safety. The circumstances of the accident and the time between alcohol consumption and death are important factors. Material and Methods: A retrospective review of 18 935 medico-legal autopsy reports and toxicological reports performed in the Department of Forensic Medicine at the Wroclaw Medical University, Poland, in the years 1991–2014. The study protocol included circumstances, time and cause of death, injuries, quantitative testing for the presence of ethyl alcohol, gender and age. Results: There were 98 farm-related fatalities. There were 41.8% (N = 41 of victims who had been intoxicated – 95.1% (N = 39 of them were males aged 19–70 years old, 4,9% (N = 2 were females aged 37–65 years old. In 8 cases the blood alcohol concentration (BAC was 50–150 mg/dl; in 15 cases it was 150–250 mg/dl and in 18 cases it was > 250 mg/dl. In 21 cases, the BAC was determined using alternative material and 76% (N = 16 victims were in the alcohol elimination phase with 19% (N = 4 victims in the alcohol absorption phase. The most common causes of death were traffic accidents, drowning and deaths resulting from being caught in or hit by moving parts of machinery or equipment. Conclusions: Alcohol consumption is a crucial risk factor in fatal agricultural accidents. In order to establish the time of alcohol consumption, all victims of agricultural accidents should be tested for alcohol concentration in their blood and urine or vitreous. Improving safety at work requires that the sobriety of employees should be monitored before and during work. Med Pr 2017;68(1:23–30

  3. Setting up fuel supply strategies for large-scale bio-energy projects using agricultural and forest residues. A methodology for developing countries

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Junginger, M.

    2000-08-01

    The objective of this paper is to develop a coherent methodology to set up fuel supply strategies for large-scale biomass-conversion units. This method will explicitly take risks and uncertainties regarding availability and costs in relation to time into account. This paper aims at providing general guidelines, which are not country-specific. These guidelines cannot provide 'perfect fit'-solutions, but aim to give general help to overcome barriers and to set up supply strategies. It will mainly focus on residues from the agricultural and forestry sector. This study focuses on electricity or both electricity and heat production (CHP) with plant scales between 1040 MWe. This range is chosen due to rules of economies of scale. In large-scale plants the benefits of increased efficiency outweigh increased transportation costs, allowing a lower price per kWh which in turn may allow higher biomass costs. However, fuel-supply risks tend to get higher with increasing plant size, which makes it more important to assess them for large(r) conversion plants. Although the methodology does not focus on a specific conversion technology, it should be stressed that the technology must be able to handle a wide variety of biomass fuels with different characteristics because many biomass residues are not available the year round and various fuels are needed for a constant supply. The methodology allows for comparing different technologies (with known investment and operational and maintenance costs from literature) and evaluation for different fuel supply scenarios. In order to demonstrate the methodology, a case study was carried out for the north-eastern part of Thailand (Isaan), an agricultural region. The research was conducted in collaboration with the Regional Wood Energy Development Programme in Asia (RWEDP), a project of the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) in Bangkok, Thailand. In Section 2 of this paper the methodology will be presented. In Section 3 the economic

  4. Experiences of nurses working in a rural primary health-care setting in Mopani district, Limpopo Province

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    MP Mohale

    2008-09-01

    Full Text Available Professional nurses working in rural, primary health-care settings are experiencing burnout due to serious shortages of personnel. This is exacerbated by the brain drain of nurses leaving the country. Rural settings are resource constrained in terms of personnel and equipment. This results in dissatisfaction among nurses due to the unbearable working conditions which result in stress and frustration. A qualitative, explorative, descriptive study was conducted to explore and describe the experiences of nurses working in a rural primary health-care setting in the greater Letaba sub district in Limpopo Province. Purposive sampling was used to identify the participants. Data was collected in the form of in-depth interviews. The study revealed that nurses working in primary health-care settings were experiencing emotional and physical strain as a result of the shortage of human resources. It was recommended that policies that meet the health-care needs of rural communities be developed, and that strategies to retain professional nurses in primary health-care settings be formulated.

  5. Relationship between biodiversity and agricultural production

    OpenAIRE

    Brunetti, Ilaria; Tidball, Mabel; Couvet, Denis

    2018-01-01

    Agriculture is one of the main causes of biodiversity loss. In this work we model the interdependent relationship between biodiversity and agriculture on a farmed land, supposing that, while agriculture has a negative impact on biodiversity, the latter can increase agricultural production. Farmers act as myopic agents, who maximize their instantaneous profit without considering the negative effects of their practice on the evolution of biodiversity. We find that a tax on inputs can have a pos...

  6. Nonpoint Source Pollution: Agriculture, Forestry, and Mining. Instructor Guide. Working for Clean Water: An Information Program for Advisory Groups.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buskirk, E. Drannon, Jr.

    Nonpoint sources of pollution have diffuse origins and are major contributors to water quality problems in both urban and rural areas. Addressed in this instructor's manual are the identification, assessment, and management of nonpoint source pollutants resulting from mining, agriculture, and forestry. The unit, part of the Working for Clean Water…

  7. Assessing Agricultural Drought in the Anthropocene: A Modified Palmer Drought Severity Index

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mingzhi Yang

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available In the current human-influenced era, drought is initiated by natural and human drivers, and human activities are as integral to drought as meteorological factors. In large irrigated agricultural regions with high levels of human intervention, where the natural farmland soil moisture has usually been changed significantly by high-frequency irrigation, the actual severity of agricultural drought is distorted in traditional drought indices. In this work, an agricultural drought index that considering irrigation processes based on the Palmer drought severity index (IrrPDSI was developed to interpret the real agricultural drought conditions in irrigated regions, with a case study in the Haihe River Basin in northeast China. The water balance model in the original PDSI was revised by an auto-irrigation threshold method combined with a local irrigation schedule. The auto-irrigation setting of the index was used by taking irrigation quotas during specific growth stages of specific crops (wheat–corn into consideration. A series of weekly comparative analyses are as follows: (1 The soil moisture analyses showed that soil moisture values calculated by the modified water balance model were close to the real values; (2 The statistical analyses indicated that most of the stations in the study area based on IrrPDSI had nearly normal distributed values; (3 The time series and spatial analyses showed that the results of the IrrPDSI-reported dry-wet evaluation were more consistent with documented real conditions. All the results revealed that IrrPDSI performed well when used to assess agricultural drought. This work has direct significance for agricultural drought management in large irrigated areas heavily disturbed by human activity.

  8. Agricultural Intensification as a Mechanism of Adaptation to Climate Change Impacts

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kyle, P.; Calvin, K. V.; le Page, Y.; Patel, P.; West, T. O.; Wise, M. A.

    2015-12-01

    The research, policy, and NGO communities have devoted significant attention to the potential for agricultural intensification, or closure of "yield gaps," to alleviate future global hunger, poverty, climate change impacts, and other threats. However, because the research to this point has focused on biophysically attainable yields—assuming optimal choices under ideal conditions—the presently available work has not yet addressed the likely responses of the agricultural sector to real-world conditions in the future. This study investigates endogenous agricultural intensification in response to global climate change impacts—that is, intensification independent of policies or other exogenous interventions to promote yield gap closure. The framework for the analysis is a set of scenarios to 2100 in the GCAM global integrated assessment model, enhanced to include endogenous irrigation, fertilizer application, and yields, in each of 283 land use regions, with maximum yields based on the 95th percentile of attainable yields in a recent global assessment. We assess three levels of agricultural climate impacts, using recent global gridded crop model datasets: none, low (LPJmL), and high (Pegasus). Applying formulations for decomposition of climate change impacts response developed in prior AgMIP work, we find that at the global level, availability of high-yielding technologies mitigates price shocks and shifts the agricultural sector's climate response modestly towards intensification, away from cropland expansion and reduced production. At the regional level, the behavior is more complex; nevertheless, availability of high-yielding production technologies enhances the inter-regional shifts in agricultural production that are induced by climate change, complemented by commensurate changes in trade patterns. The results highlight the importance of policies to facilitate yield gap closure and inter-regional trade as mechanisms for adapting to climate change

  9. Agricultural extension and mass media.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Perraton, H

    1983-12-01

    To learn more about the use of the mass media for agricultural extension, the World Bank has considered the efforts of 2 units: INADES-formation in West Africa and the Extension Aids Branch of Malawi. The INADES-formation study focuses on Cameroon but also considers work in Rwanda and the Ivory Coast. Some general conclusions emerge from a comparison of the 2 organizations. Malawi operates an extension service which reaches farmers through extension agents, through farmer training centers, and through mass media. The Extension Aids Branch (EAB) has responsibility for its media work and broadcasts 4 1/2 hours of radio each week. Its 6 regular radio programs include a general program which interviews farmers, a music request program in which the music is interspersed with farming advice, a farming family serial, and a daily broadcast of agricultural news and information. The 17 cinema vans show some agricultural films, made by EAB, some entertainment films, and some government information films from departments other than the ministry of agriculture. EAB also has a well-developed program of research and evaluation of its own work. INADES-formation, the training section of INADES, works towards social and economic development of the population. It teaches peasant farmers and extension agents and does this through running face-to-face seminars, by publishing a magazine, "Agripromo," and through correspondence courses. In 1978-79 INADES-formation enrolled some 4500 farmers and extension agents as students. Both of these organizations work to teach farmers better agriculture techniques, and both were created in response to the fact that agricultural extension agents cannot meet all the farmers in their area. Despite the similarity of objective, there are differences in methods and philosophy. The EAB works in a single country and uses a variety of mass media, with print playing a minor role. INADES-formation is an international and nongovernmental organization and its

  10. Radioisotopes in Burmese agricultural research

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    1961-07-15

    The Burmese authorities decided to start a laboratory for the use of radioisotope techniques in agricultural r e search. The laboratory was set up at the Agricultural Research Institute at Gyogon, on the outskirts of Rangoon. Under its technical assistance program, IAEA assigned an expert in the agricultural applications of radioisotopes for this project. Discussions were held with regional representatives of the Food and Agriculture Organization on the best lines of research to be adopted at the laboratory in its early stages. As the most important crop in Burma is rice, a series of experiments were planned for a study of the nutrition of rice, particularly its phosphorus uptake, with special reference to comparative responses on a range of typical paddy soils. The experiments began last year and are being continued.

  11. Setting priorities for research on pollution reduction functions of agricultural buffers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Michael G. Dosskey

    2002-01-01

    The success of buffer installation initiatives and programs to reduce nonpoint source pollution of streams on agricultural lands will depend the ability of local planners to locate and design buffers for specific circumstances with substantial and predictable results. Current predictive capabilities are inadequate, and major sources of uncertainty remain. An...

  12. Professional autonomy and work setting as contributing factors to depression and absenteeism in Canadian nurses.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Enns, Victoria; Currie, Shawn; Wang, JianLi

    2015-01-01

    The prevalence of major depression in Canadian nurses is double the national average for working women. The present study sought to delineate the role of professional autonomy, health care setting, and work environment characteristics as risk factors for depression and absenteeism in female nurses. A cross-sectional, secondary analysis was conducted on a large representative sample of female nurses working in hospitals and other settings across Canada (N = 17,437). Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to test the hypothesis that work environment factors are significant determinants of major depression and absenteeism in female nurses after accounting for other risk factors. Experiencing a major depressive episode in the past 12 months was significantly associated with lower autonomy (odds ratio [OR] = 0.93), higher job strain (OR = 2.2), being a licensed practical nurse (OR = 0.82), and working in a nonhospital setting (OR = 1.5). Higher absenteeism was associated with the same variables as well as having less control over one's work schedule. Efforts to increase autonomy of nurses and reduce job strain may help to address the high prevalence of major depression in this professional group. Crown Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  13. Motivation of volunteers to work in palliative care setting: A qualitative study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M A Muckaden

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Background: Volunteers are an integral part of the palliative care services in the Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. These volunteers are an important resource for the department. Thus, it is necessary for the department to determine what motivates these volunteers to continue to work in the setting, acknowledge them and direct efforts toward retaining them and giving them opportunities to serve to the best of their desire and abilities. Aims: The current study aimed at understanding the motivation of volunteers to work in palliative care, to identify the challenges they face and also the effect of their work on their self and relationships. Methodology: In-depth interviews were conducted using semistructured interview guide to study above mentioned aspects. Themes were identified and coding was used to analyze the data. Results: The results suggested that the basic motivation for all the volunteers to work in a palliative care setting is an inherent urge, a feeling of need to give back to the society by serving the sick and the suffering. Other motivating factors identified were team spirit, comfort shared, warm and respectful treatment by the team, satisfying nature of work, experience of cancer in the family, and aligned values and beliefs. Some intrinsic rewards mentioned by volunteers were joy of giving, personal growth, enriching experiences, and meaningful nature of work. Conclusion: The study attempted to improve opportunities of working for these volunteers. Although limited in scope, it offers insight for future research in the area of volunteerism in palliative care setup.

  14. Setting Priorities for Gerontological Social Work Research: A National Delphi Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burnette, Denise; Morrow-Howell, Nancy; Chen, Li-Mei

    2003-01-01

    Purpose: An increasingly important task for all disciplines involved in aging research is to identify and prioritize areas for investigation. This article reports the results of a national Delphi study on setting research priorities for gerontological social work. Design and Methods: Delphi methodology, a structured process for eliciting and…

  15. Spanish for Agricultural Purposes: The Basic Manual.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mainous, Bruce H.; And Others

    This manual, part of a one-semester course for North American agriculture specialists preparing to work in Latin America, is built around specimens of agricultural writing in Spanish. The manual contains 12 lessons on general agriculture, sugar production, grain production, geography, forestry, animal husbandry, soy bean production, agricultural…

  16. Farm multifunctional diversification and agricultural landscape trasformations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Emilio Chiodo

    Full Text Available The work aims to analyze changes in agricultural landscape linked to transformations in agricultural productive system. The territory for analysis is situated along the “internal Marche ridge” of the Apennines, in the province of Ancona (Marche region, partly included in the Regional Natural Park “Gola della Rossa e Frassassi”. The work aims at elaborating an investigative methodology which can highlight the transformation of territorial structures and the dynamics that influence management of the territory and landscape in order to provide operative instructions for an integrated elaboration of instruments for urban planning and economic programming, specially for agricultural policies. Multi-functionality and diversification in agriculture are the instruments that can help agriculture to improve the economic value of products and at the same time to improve the quality of territory and landscape.

  17. Predicting Secondary Agriculture Teachers' Job Stress from Selected Personal, Family, and Work-Related Characteristics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Torres, Robert M.; Lambert, Misty D.; Lawver, Rebecca G.

    2010-01-01

    The study sought to describe the characteristics and explain the current level of job stress among secondary agriculture teachers. The sample consisted of 370 secondary agriculture teachers. Data were collected using the Job Stress Survey (Spielberger & Vagg, 1999). From the findings it was concluded that the average secondary agriculture teacher…

  18. Psychosocial factors at work and perceived health among agricultural meat industry workers in France.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cohidon, Christine; Morisseau, Patrick; Derriennic, Francis; Goldberg, Marcel; Imbernon, Ellen

    2009-07-01

    The objective of this study was to describe the perceived health status of the meat industry employees--i.e., working in the slaughtering, cutting, and boning of large animals and poultry--and its relation to their organisational and psychosocial constraints at work. This postal survey included all 3,000 employees of the meat industry (beef, pork and poultry) in four districts in Brittany, France, whose companies were affiliated with the agricultural branch of the national health insurance fund. The questionnaire asked for social and demographic data and information describing their job and the organisation of their work. The psychosocial factors at work were described according to Karasek's questionnaire (demand, latitude and social support at work). Perceived health was measured with the Nottingham Health Profile perceived health indicator. This study shows the high prevalence of poor health reported by the workers in this industry. This poor perceived health was worse in women and increased regularly with age. Among the psychosocial factors studied, high quantitative and qualitative demand at work, inadequate resources for good work and to a lesser extent, inadequate prospects for promotion appear especially associated with poor perceived health. Other factors often associated with poor perceived health included young age at the first job and work hours that disrupt sleep rhythms (especially for women). Our results show that this population of workers is especially vulnerable from the point of view of perceived physical and psychological health and is exposed to strong physical, organisational and psychosocial constraints at work. They also demonstrate that poor perceived health is associated with some psychosocial (such as high psychological demand and insufficient resources) and organisational factors at work. These results, in conjunction with those from other disciplines involved in studying this industry, may help the companies to develop preventive

  19. Non-governmental organizations and agricultural development in ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    This paper analyzes the potential collaboration between agricultural research and NGOs in the dissemination of agricultural technologies at the Kenyan coast. An inventory of NGOs working in the region was established, and 11 out of 25 were found to be active in agricultural development. These 11 NGOs were visited and ...

  20. Disarming Contankerous People: Coping with Difficult Personalities in ECE Work Settings

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hernandez, Luis; Smith, Connie Jo

    2009-01-01

    Difficult personalities come in a variety of roles in just about every setting. While types have been identified in the typical corporate and business culture, difficult work personalities also inhabit the world of early childhood education (ECE) workplaces. Because difficult people have an impact on workplace morale and productivity, the topic…

  1. Needlestick Injuries in Agriculture Workers and Prevention Programs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buswell, Minden L; Hourigan, Mary; Nault, André J; Bender, Jeffrey B

    2016-01-01

    There are a variety of biologics, vaccines, antibiotics, and hormones used in animal agriculture. Depending upon the procedure or pharmaceutical used, accidental injections or product exposures can result in mild to severe injuries. Needlestick injury (NSI) prevention, research, and education for veterinarians and agriculture workers is limited. The objective of this study was to collect and review published case reports and case series/surveys on human needlestick exposure to veterinary biologics and to summarize needlestick prevention strategies for agricultural workers/veterinarians. A search was conducted of PubMed and Centre for Agriculture Bioscience International (CABI) databases. References were reviewed to identify additional articles. NSI among agricultural workers were primarily included in this review. Thirty articles were applicable to exposures in agricultural settings. Relevant literature consisted of case reports, survey/case series articles, prevention documents, and background articles. Fifty-nine case patients were identified. Most of these cases were associated with exposures to specific vaccines or veterinary products. Injury location was identified from 36 individuals: 24 (67%) NSI to the hands, 10 (28%) injuries to the legs, and 2 to other body locations. Of the 59 cases, 20 (34%) involved oil-adjuvant vaccines. Evidence of hospitalization was recorded for 30 case patients. The length of hospitalization was available from 11 case patients. Median length of hospitalization was 3 days (range: 1-4). Surgical intervention was reported in 25 case patients. Outcome information was available on 30 case patients. Fifteen made a complete recovery within 2 weeks of treatment, 14 had residual sequelae attributed to the injury, and there was 1 reported death. Of the 13 survey/case series articles: 2 focused on oil-adjuvant products, 1 on Brucellosis RB-51 vaccine, 3 on tilmicosin, 1 on Salmonella enteritidis vaccine, 1 on high-pressure injection, and 5

  2. A working-set framework for sequential convex approximation methods

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Stolpe, Mathias

    2008-01-01

    We present an active-set algorithmic framework intended as an extension to existing implementations of sequential convex approximation methods for solving nonlinear inequality constrained programs. The framework is independent of the choice of approximations and the stabilization technique used...... to guarantee global convergence of the method. The algorithm works directly on the nonlinear constraints in the convex sub-problems and solves a sequence of relaxations of the current sub-problem. The algorithm terminates with the optimal solution to the sub-problem after solving a finite number of relaxations....

  3. Policies for reduced deforestation and their impact on agricultural production.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Angelsen, Arild

    2010-11-16

    Policies to effectively reduce deforestation are discussed within a land rent (von Thünen) framework. The first set of policies attempts to reduce the rent of extensive agriculture, either by neglecting extension, marketing, and infrastructure, generating alternative income opportunities, stimulating intensive agricultural production or by reforming land tenure. The second set aims to increase either extractive or protective forest rent and--more importantly--create institutions (community forest management) or markets (payment for environmental services) that enable land users to capture a larger share of the protective forest rent. The third set aims to limit forest conversion directly by establishing protected areas. Many of these policy options present local win-lose scenarios between forest conservation and agricultural production. Local yield increases tend to stimulate agricultural encroachment, contrary to the logic of the global food equation that suggests yield increases take pressure off forests. At national and global scales, however, policy makers are presented with a more pleasant scenario. Agricultural production in developing countries has increased by 3.3-3.4% annually over the last 2 decades, whereas gross deforestation has increased agricultural area by only 0.3%, suggesting a minor role of forest conversion in overall agricultural production. A spatial delinking of remaining forests and intensive production areas should also help reconcile conservation and production goals in the future.

  4. Global Health: Preparation for Working in Resource-Limited Settings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    St Clair, Nicole E; Pitt, Michael B; Bakeera-Kitaka, Sabrina; McCall, Natalie; Lukolyo, Heather; Arnold, Linda D; Audcent, Tobey; Batra, Maneesh; Chan, Kevin; Jacquet, Gabrielle A; Schutze, Gordon E; Butteris, Sabrina

    2017-11-01

    Trainees and clinicians from high-income countries are increasingly engaging in global health (GH) efforts, particularly in resource-limited settings. Concomitantly, there is a growing demand for these individuals to be better prepared for the common challenges and controversies inherent in GH work. This is a state-of-the-art review article in which we outline what is known about the current scope of trainee and clinician involvement in GH experiences, highlight specific considerations and issues pertinent to GH engagement, and summarize preparation recommendations that have emerged from the literature. The article is focused primarily on short-term GH experiences, although much of the content is also pertinent to long-term work. Suggestions are made for the health care community to develop and implement widely endorsed preparation standards for trainees, clinicians, and organizations engaging in GH experiences and partnerships. Copyright © 2017 by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

  5. Impacts of antibiotic use in agriculture: what are the benefits and risks?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Durso, Lisa M; Cook, Kimberly L

    2014-06-01

    Antibiotic drugs provide clear benefits for food animal health and welfare, while simultaneously providing clear risks due to enrichment of resistant microorganisms. There is no consensus, however, on how to evaluate benefits and risks of antibiotic use in agriculture, or the impact on public health. Recent soil resistome work emphasizes the importance of environmental reservoirs of antibiotic resistance (AR), and provides a starting point for distinguishing AR that can be impacted by agricultural practices from AR naturally present in a system. Manure is the primary vehicle introducing antibiotic drugs, AR bacteria and AR genes from animals into the environment. Manure management, therefore, impacts the transfer of AR from agricultural to human clinical settings via soil, water, and food. Ongoing research on the ecology of naturally occurring and anthropogenically derived AR in agroecosystems is necessary to adequately quantify the benefits and risks associated with use of antibiotics in food animals. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  6. Raising the profile of worker safety: highlights of the 2013 North American Agricultural Safety Summit.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nelson, William J; Heiberger, Scott; Lee, Barbara C

    2014-01-01

    The 2013 North American Agricultural Safety Summit, an unprecedented gathering of industry leaders and safety experts, was held September 25-27 in Minneapolis, MN. Hosted by the industry-led Agricultural Safety and Health Council of America (ASHCA), there were 250 attendees, 82 speakers, 76 abstracts with poster presentations, along with "best practices" videos, genius bars sessions, learning stations, exhibits, breakfast roundtable topics, and receptions. The event was a mix of knowledge, inspiration and networking to enable participants to influence the adoption of safety practices in their home/work settings. Given the agriculture industry's commitment to feed nine billion people, the projected world population by 2050, it is imperative that producers and agribusiness strive to do it safely, humanely and sustainably. Evaluation feedback was very positive, indicating ASHCA's original objectives for the Summit were achieved.

  7. Anthropology in Agricultural Health and Safety Research and Intervention.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arcury, Thomas

    2017-01-01

    Agriculture remains a dangerous industry, even as agricultural science and technology continue to advance. Research that goes beyond technological changes to address safety culture and policy are needed to improve health and safety in agriculture. In this commentary, I consider the potential for anthropology to contribute to agricultural health and safety research by addressing three aims: (1) I briefly consider what the articles in this issue of the Journal of Agromedicine say about anthropologists in agricultural health and safety; (2) I discuss what anthropologists can add to agricultural health and safety research; and (3) I examine ways in which anthropologists can participate in agricultural health and safety research. In using their traditions of rigorous field research to understand how those working in agriculture perceive and interpret factors affecting occupational health and safety (their "emic" perspective), and translating this perspective to improve the understanding of occupational health professionals and policy makers (an "etic" perspective), anthropologists can expose myths that limit improvements in agricultural health and safety. Addressing significant questions, working with the most vulnerable agricultural communities, and being outside establishment agriculture provide anthropologists with the opportunity to improve health and safety policy and regulation in agriculture.

  8. Health hazards to children in agriculture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilk, V A

    1993-09-01

    Children comprise a significant portion of the agricultural workforce and are exposed to many workplace hazards, including farm machinery, pesticides, poor field sanitation, unsafe transportation, and fatigue from doing physically demanding work for long periods. Migrant farmworker children face the additional hazard of substandard or nonexistent housing in the fields. Children account for a disproportionate share of agricultural workplace fatalities and disabling injuries, with more than 300 deaths and 27,000 injuries per year. The most common cause of fatal and nonfatal injury among children in agriculture is farm machinery, with tractors accounting for the greatest number. Remedies to the problems of child labor must take into account family economics and the need for child care. Labor law reform and rigorous enforcement of existing laws and of workplace health and safety requirements are vital to better protect the children and adults working in agriculture.

  9. 7 CFR 2.68 - Administrator, National Agricultural Statistics Service.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ....S.C. 3318). (6) Enter cost-reimbursable agreements relating to agricultural research and statistical... promote and support the development of a viable and sustainable global agricultural system. Such work may... 7 Agriculture 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Administrator, National Agricultural Statistics...

  10. Sustainability Assessment and Reporting in Agriculture Sector

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Edward Kassem

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Sustainability assessment is a mainstream business activity that demonstrates the link between the organization’s strategy and commitment to a sustainable global economy. Sustainability indicators describe the environmental, social, economic and governance performance of Small and Medium‑sized Businesses/Enterprises (SMB/SME. Unfortunately, their implementations in the Czech Republic show a low level of engagement in sustainability assessment. The paper presents the results of the authors’ research in sustainability assessment of SMB/SMEs in the agriculture sector of the Czech Republic. An appropriate set of key performance indicators (KPIs in four dimensions (economy, environment, social and governance was developed to suit the SMB/SMEs sustainability assessment in the agriculture sector. A set of KPIs is proposed to help SMB/SMEs to avoid the barriers of sustainability assessment. These indicators are based mainly on Sustainability Assessment of Food and Agriculture, Global Reporting Initiatives Frameworks and on current research state‑of‑the‑art. They have been created following the analysis of a number of agricultural enterprises over the world, particularly within European countries.

  11. Features of Investment Activity in Agriculture in the South of Russia and Ways of its Activation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vladimir Ivanovich Trukhachev

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available The relevance of this article on the topic: “Features of Investment Activity in Agriculture in the South of Russia and Ways of its Activation” is that at the present time, as a result of the systemic crisis of the Russian economy, a set of objective prerequisites for improving the financial and credit mechanisms in the agro industrial complex has been formed. The fall in the rouble exchange rate to foreign currencies made foreign agricultural products and food too expensive on the Russian market and sales fell sharply in Russia. This led to the emergence of free niches in the domestic agrarian market and increased the competitiveness of domestic agricultural products and food. In these conditions, an important task for Russian agricultural producers is to increase the volume of production and sales of agricultural products, and this requires an increase in production capacity, modernization of the material and technical base. To solve these problems, it is necessary to increase investment in the agricul-tural sector of the economy, which without improving the existing credit and financial system in the Russian agribusiness sector cannot be done. Based on the goal set by the authors, the subject of the study are factors and patterns that affect investment in agriculture. To write the article, dialectical methods of cognition of socioeconomic, natural-biological processes and phenomena were used as well as the systemic approach: analytical, economic-statistical, monographic, calculating and constructive and expert evaluations. This allowed working out effective measures to intensify investment activity by improving the lending process as the main source of external investment, and solving the problems of financing agricultural organizations, using non-traditional external sources of investment for agriculture in Stavropol Krai.

  12. Modelling of agricultural combination driver behaviour from the aspect of safety of movement

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jan Szczepaniak

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available Statistics show that the travel of agricultural machinery to a work area and their movement during labour is the source of many serious accidents. The most dangerous in consequences prove to be those that occur during transport and associated with maneuvering tractors and machinery (about 30% of all fatal accidents. It can be assumed that at least some of these accidents were caused indirectly by the specific design features of agricultural machines which adversely affect the driveability. The single- and multi-loop structures of the driver-vehicle system models are formulated to study the contributions of various preview and prediction strategies to the path tracking and dynamic performance of the articulated vehicle. In the presented study the compensatory model of driver utilizes the lateral acceleration of the tractor, roll angle of trailer sprung mass and the articulation rate as the internal motion feedback variables. The control model of steering of an agricultural set has been implemented in the Matlab/Simulink environment. The model has been constructed with the use of stochastic methods and operational transmittances describing the various components of the system. The model operational transmittances has been estimated using Box-Jenkins and continuous-time process models from input-output data. The model has been tested using experimental data from road investigation of the agricultural set.

  13. "Othering" agricultural biotechnology: Slovenian media representation of agricultural biotechnology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zajc, Jožica; Erjavec, Karmen

    2014-08-01

    While studies on media representations of agricultural biotechnology mostly analyse media texts, this work is intended to fill a research gap with an analysis of journalistic interpretations of media representations. The purpose of this project was to determine how news media represent agricultural biotechnology and how journalists interpret their own representations. A content and critical discourse analysis of news texts published in the Slovenian media over two years and in-depth interviews with their authors were conducted. News texts results suggest that most of the news posts were "othering" biotechnology and biotechnologists: biotechnology as a science and individual scientists are represented as "they," who are socially irresponsible, ignorant, arrogant, and "our" enemies who produce unnatural processes and work for biotechnology companies, whose greed is destroying people, animals, and the environment. Most journalists consider these representations to be objective because they have published the biotechnologists' opinions, despite their own negative attitudes towards biotechnology.

  14. An Empirical Research on the Evaluation Index Regarding the Service Quality of Agricultural Information Websites in China

    OpenAIRE

    Liu , Liyong; Yuan , Xiaoqing; Li , Daoliang

    2010-01-01

    International audience; Agricultural information website, which takes the mission of providing valid information for the expansive agricultural information demanders, is an important carrier for the state to enact its strategy of agriculture informatization. This paper establishes a set of evaluation measures regarding the service quality of agricultural information websites by setting up the index system of agricultural information websites, evaluates comprehensively agricultural information...

  15. PROBLEMS OF FORMATION OF RUSSIAN INNOVATIVE AGRICULTURAL TRACTORS FLEET

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    V. M. Kryazhkov

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Formation of tractors park and its perspective development are carried out on the basis of realization and improvement of the scientifically based types range constructed on a traction classification sign which conforms to requirements of agricultural production when performing two main conditions: full meeting the requirements for various standard sizes of tractors applicable to conditions of the corresponding zones of Russia and continuous reproduction and development of tractor fleet, both by quantity of efficient machinery and its structure. The developed types range practically runs the gamut of organizational and economic and climatic conditions, and also all range of forms of the organizations using machinery, beginning from individual consumers, small and large rent and contract collectives and finishing large-scale enterprises and their associations. Federal Service of State Statistics (Rosstat information about a steady tendency of fleet reduction was used for studying of regularities of development of tractor fleet. This information was added by analytical synthesis of data about the annual brand purchases in the Russian market of agricultural tractors. The developed database shows a share of the tractors in fleets of agricultural organizations, which are used over depreciation term, and also minimum necessary number of new machines introduction for formation of volume of tractors with limit age and the total quantity of tractors necessary for minimization of set of expenses. It was established that it is possible to estimate visually the developed quantitative and age structure of tractors fleet and to predict its development on prospect by worked out database representing set of annual tractors brand lines purchasing.

  16. The relationship between healthy work environments and retention of nurses in a hospital setting.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ritter, Desiree

    2011-01-01

    The purpose of the present paper was to determine the effect a healthy work environment has on the retention of nurses in a hospital setting. There is a nursing shortage that has been ongoing and is expected to continue, resulting in challenges for the healthcare system in the United States. The significance of this issue is the impact the nursing shortage will have on healthcare organizations and patients. The present paper included an extensive review of the current literature. The literature reviewed encompassed scholarly peer-reviewed journal articles. This article focused on nurses, work environments and the impact of the work environments on retention. Important issues that emerged from this analysis were the dangers of an unhealthy environment, the impact a healthy work environment has on patient outcomes and retention, the Magnet link to healthy work environments and the manager's role in creating and sustaining a healthy work environment. The literature provided evidence of the link between healthy work environments and the retention of nurses in a hospital setting. The implications for management are to implement changes now to create a healthy work environment that will recruit and retain nurses to secure their position in the future. © 2010 The Author. Journal compilation © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

  17. Quality Evaluation of Agricultural Distillates Using an Electronic Nose

    OpenAIRE

    Dymerski, Tomasz; Gębicki, Jacek; Wardencki, Waldemar; Namieśnik, Jacek

    2013-01-01

    The paper presents the application of an electronic nose instrument to fast evaluation of agricultural distillates differing in quality. The investigations were carried out using a prototype of electronic nose equipped with a set of six semiconductor sensors by FIGARO Co., an electronic circuit converting signal into digital form and a set of thermostats able to provide gradient temperature characteristics to a gas mixture. A volatile fraction of the agricultural distillate samples differing ...

  18. The Food and Agricultural Policy Simulator

    OpenAIRE

    Salathe, Larry E.; Price, J. Michael; Gadson, Kenneth E.

    1982-01-01

    This article describes the structure and dynamic properties of the Food and Agricultural Policy Simulator (FAPSIM), an annual econometric model of the US agricultural sector F APSIM estimates a simultaneous price-quantity equilibrium solution for a set of individual commodity models developed for beef, pork, dairy, chickens, eggs, turkeys, corn, oats, barley, gram sorghum, wheat, soybeans, and cotton F APSIM also endogenously determines farm production expenses, cash receipts, net farm Income...

  19. Syllabi for Instruction in Agricultural Meteorology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    De Villiers, G. D. B.; And Others

    A working group of the Commission for Agricultural Meteorology has prepared this report to fill a need for detailed syllabi for instruction in agricultural meteorology required by different levels of personnel. Agrometeorological personnel are classified in three categories: (1) professional meteorological personnel (graduates with basic training…

  20. Perceptions of Work-Life Balance Practices Offered in the Collegiate Practice Setting.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mazerolle, Stephanie M; Eason, Christianne M; Eberman, Lindsey E

    2017-12-01

      Organizational factors have been identified as barriers to finding work-life balance (WLB) in athletic training. Despite the existence of organizational policies to address WLB, little is known about athletic trainers' (ATs') awareness of these policies that could assist them.   To better understand the perceptions of ATs regarding the workplace practices available to them, which may help them achieve WLB.   Phenomenologic study.   Collegiate practice setting.   Twenty-one ATs (women = 10, men = 11) employed at the collegiate level (National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I = 12, Division II = 5, Division III = 4) volunteered for our study. The average age of the participants was 33 ± 9 years. Saturation of the data was met at n = 21.   Participants completed an in-depth, 1-on-1 phone interview, which was then transcribed verbatim. Data were analyzed using a phenomenologic approach. Credibility was determined by member checks, peer review, and researcher triangulation.   Our analyses revealed that participants (1) had a limited awareness of formal policies that were offered within their university or collegiate infrastructure; (2) used informal policies to manage their personal, family, and work obligations; and (3) thought that more formal policies, such as adherence to adequate staffing patterns and work schedules, could help establish WLB within collegiate athletic training settings.   Informal workplace policies were more commonly used by our participants and were viewed as a means of creating a supportive atmosphere. Administrators and supervisors should consider creating or endorsing more formal policies specific to the demands of an AT in the collegiate setting to help with WLB.

  1. ROMANIAN AGRICULTURE, WHERE TO? CHALLENGES AFTER EU INTEGRATION

    OpenAIRE

    Lavinia Maria Netoiu; Loredana Meita; Titu Netoiu

    2013-01-01

    Along the time, the Romanian agriculture has passed several stages, different point of view of property regime, the operating system and the contribution of this sector to the GDP formation. Currently agriculture is in the process of transformation, a process whose aim is the harmonization of Romanian agricultural policy rules and fundamentals of the Common Agricultural Policy. This work is intended as a short study of developments in the agricultural sector phenomena, captured point of view ...

  2. LABOUR INPUT IN POLISH AGRICULTURE AGAINST SIZE OF AGRICULTURAL HOLDINGS – SPATIAL ANALYSIS*

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Łukasz Wiśniewski

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this paper is to present the analysis of spatial diversifi cation in the labour input in agriculture on the basis of these selected indicators: annual work unit (AWU per 100 ha agricultural acreage; number of people per AWU; and comparison of labour input to EU-15 standards (LI-EU. Agricultural holdings have been categorised by size into three groups: 0–10 ha (small, 10–20 ha (average, and over 20 ha (large. Labour resources were subject to a comparative study of the density rates of AWUs per 100 ha agricultural acreage in Poland and the EU (EU-15. The analysis covered all of Poland with consideration of the administrative division into sixteen voivodeships (tabular analysis and 314 poviats (townships and country districts together, including regional offi ces of the Agency for Restructuring and Modernisation of Agriculture (ARiMR; cartographic analysis. The results of the Agricultural Census of 2010 were used in the study. It demonstrated a signifi cant spatial diversifi cation in labour input in agriculture in general and in each holding size group. Predominantly, the diff erences are related to historical and political factors. The analysis corroborated agrarian overpopulation in south-east Poland.

  3. A comparison of burnout among oncology nurses working in adult and pediatric inpatient and outpatient settings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davis, Shoni; Lind, Bonnie K; Sorensen, Celeste

    2013-07-01

    To investigate differences in burnout among oncology nurses by type of work setting, coping strategies, and job satisfaction. Descriptive. A metropolitan cancer center. A convenience sample of 74 oncology nurses. Participants completed a demographic data form, the Nursing Satisfaction and Retention Survey, and the Maslach Burnout Inventory. Burnout, coping strategies, job satisfaction, and oncology work setting (inpatient versus outpatient and adult versus pediatric). The participants most often used spirituality and coworker support to cope. Emotional exhaustion was lowest for youngest nurses and highest for outpatient RNs. Personal accomplishment was highest in adult settings. Job satisfaction correlated inversely with emotional exhaustion and the desire to leave oncology nursing. The findings support that the social context within the work environment may impact emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, and that demographics may be more significant in determining burnout than setting. The findings raise questions of whether demographics or setting plays a bigger role in burnout and supports organizational strategies that enhance coworker camaraderie, encourage nurses to discuss high-stress situations, and share ways to manage their emotions in oncology settings. Spirituality and coworker relationships were positive coping strategies among oncology nurses to prevent emotional exhaustion. Nurses who rely on supportive social networks as a coping mechanism have lower levels of depersonalization. Age was inversely related to emotional exhaustion.

  4. Accidental Strangulation Due to Entrapment of Saree in Crop Thrasher Machine in an Elderly Women Working at Agricultural Field.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parchake, Manoj Bhausaheb; Kumre, Vikas; Kachare, Rajesh V

    2016-09-01

    Strangulation is generally considered as homicidal death and in accidental strangulation circumstantial evidence alone can point toward the accidental nature of incidence. In present case, a 71-year-old woman, wearing a saree (garment worn by traditional women in India) working in agricultural field, got entangled in the crop thrasher machine and got strangled. Immediately, she was taken to the nearest hospital, where she survived for 6 to 8 hours and then died. The autopsy reveals cross ribbon-shaped ligature mark on neck and anterior chest along with 1 puncture wound at the right lateral aspect of the neck. A lack of proper precaution and safety measures at agricultural field are other contributing factors. Accidental strangulation by saree is extremely rare, hence, this case is presented for its rarity and pattern of injury.

  5. Agricultural Development in Zambia

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jeppesen, Søren; Hampwaye, Godfrey; Phiri, Douglas

    Food processing is important to the Zambian economy and entails a set of options for local firms to grow and create employment given the growth potential the country possesses in agriculture. This policy brief summarizes the findings of a study of 38 Zambian owned firms in the food processing...

  6. Prospective analysis agriculture energy 2030. Agriculture and the challenges of energy - Synthesis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vert, Julien; Portet, Fabienne; Even, Marie-Aude; Herault, Bruno; Laisney, Celine; Mahe, Thuriane

    2010-01-01

    The present overview document contains the main results of the Agriculture Energy 2030 prospective study, based on the work of the group led by the CEP [Centre d'etudes et de prospective/Centre for studies and strategic foresight] at the Ministry of Agriculture, Food, Fisheries, Rural Affairs and Spatial Planning. Energy in agriculture is all too often seen as a purely cyclical problem whereas it is a major issue for the future due to its economic consequences for agricultural holdings, its links with environmental and climatic issues, and its influence on food supply chains and spatial planning. Based on the scenario method, this analysis initially involved describing the whole range of links between agriculture and energy in France and organising them into a system of variables before going on to draw up an inventory of the knowledge available. Starting out from this diagnostic approach, the group constructed four scenarios over the period to 2030: 'Regionalization and sobriety to confront the crisis', 'Twin track agriculture and energy realism', 'Health Agriculture with no major energy constraints' and 'Ecological agriculture and energy savings'. These scenarios do not form an exhaustive panorama of all possible developments of the agriculture-energy system - they are rather formalised images of what the future might hold. However, quantification and comparison of the scenarios has led to the identification of major room for progress in energy efficiency in French farming. By helping gain greater awareness of future difficulties and issues or, conversely, opportunities to be grasped, these scenarios provided input for the strategic analysis phase, the concluding stage of this exercise, and the identification of general objectives and levers for public action. (authors)

  7. Government’s Responsibility for Control of Agricultural Environmental Pollution in China

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    Dongfang; CHEN

    2016-01-01

    In this paper,the current situation of agricultural environmental pollution caused by the increase of chemicals input in agriculture in China was analyzed,and it is found that agricultural pollution is related to agricultural industrial policies,urban-rural economic structure,funds input in pollution control,comprehensive environmental management,laws of pollution control,and so forth. To control agricultural pollution effectively,it is needed to implement integration of agricultural and environmental policies,establish environmentally friendly agricultural technology popularizing system,implement integrated planning and management of a basin,and set up and improve legislation to protect agricultural environment.

  8. Comparison of farmers in the agricultural health study to the 1992 and the 1997 censuses of agriculture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lynch, Charles F; Sprince, Nancy L; Heywood, Ellen; Pierce, Joy; Logsden-Sackett, Nyla; Pennybacker, Margaret; Alavanja, Michael C R

    2005-01-01

    The Agricultural Health Study (AHS) is a large, prospective cohort study in the states of Iowa and North Carolina that has been developed to better understand how pesticides and other agricultural exposures relate to the occurrence of cancer and other diseases. This report compares the characteristics of AHS farmers to the Census of Agriculture to evaluate the generalizability of AHS findings. We restricted the AHS to private pesticide applicators who enrolled in Iowa (n = 31,065) and in North Carolina (n = 17,239) between 1993 and 1997, and who identified themselves as living or working on a farm. We compared their self-reported data with data from the 1992 and 1997 Censuses of Agriculture. AHS farmers in Iowa are younger; live or work on larger farms; more frequently apply herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides; and are more likely to raise beef cattle and swine, and grow corn, soybeans, hay, and oats. AHS farmers in North Carolina are also younger, live or work on larger farms, more frequently reported growing crops commonly seen in the state, and are more frequent pesticide users. However, animals raised are similar to those in the North Carolina Census of Agriculture. AHS farmers likely represent the higher end of pesticide usage in both states in part because AHS farmers have larger farms. Since the health effects of pesticides are best ascertained among pesticide users with the greatest exposure, the AHS cohort should prove to be a valuable resource for health effects research.

  9. Working with Negative Emotions in Sets

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hillman, Alison

    2012-01-01

    This account draws upon learning from an incident in an action learning set where an individual challenged a mandatory organisational requirement. As a facilitator I reflect upon my initial defensive reaction to this challenge. The use of critical action learning to inform ourselves as facilitators of the underlying tensions between set members…

  10. agINFRA: a research data hub for agriculture, food and the environment [v2; ref status: indexed, http://f1000r.es/5hk

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andreas Drakos

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available The agINFRA project (www.aginfra.eu was a European Commission funded project under the 7th Framework Programme that aimed to introduce agricultural scientific communities to the vision of open and participatory data-intensive science. agINFRA has now evolved into the European hub for data-powered research on agriculture, food and the environment, serving the research community through multiple roles. Working on enhancing the interoperability between heterogeneous data sources, the agINFRA project has left a set of grid- and cloud- based services that can be reused by future initiatives and adopted by existing ones, in order to facilitate the dissemination of agricultural research, educational and other types of data. On top of that, agINFRA provided a set of domain-specific recommendations for the publication of agri-food research outcomes. This paper discusses the concept of the agINFRA project and presents its major outcomes, as adopted by existing initiatives activated in the context of agricultural research and education.

  11. PERSPECTIVES OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURE OF THE RUSSIA IN MODERN TIMES. RESULT OF WORK OF THE COMMITTEE OF THE STATE DUMA ON NATURAL RESOURCES, MANAGEMENT AND ECOLOGY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    V. I. Kashin

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The perspectives of the development of agriculture in Russia in modern times and main results of work of the Committee of the State Duma on Natural Resources, Management and Ecology are presented in the article. For the purpose of food sovereignty, the import ration should not be exceeded 25% from overall volume of food production. The Russian Academy of Agricultural Science worked on the potential of agricultural sector, which has to be the duty-bearer of food supply security of Russia and the source of raw materials for the trade. Up to now, the Russian scientists have developed a lot of competitive varieties and hybrids, widespread commercial introduction of which is able to guarantee of high quality products.

  12. The agricultural and the democratic transitions

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gundlach, Erich; Paldam, Martin

    Long-run development (in income) causes a large fall in the share of agriculture commonly known as the agricultural transition. We confirm that this conventional wisdom is strongly supported by the data. Long-run development (in income) also causes a large increase in democracy known...... as the democratic transition. Elsewhere we have shown that it is almost as strong as the agricultural transition. Recently, a method has been presented to weed out spuriousness. It makes the democratic transition go away by turning income insignificant, when it is supplemented by a set of formal controls. We show...... that the same method makes the agricultural transition go away as well. Hence, it seems to be a method that kills far too much, as suggested by the subtitle. This suggestion leads to a discussion of the very meaning of long-run causality....

  13. Work characteristics and pesticide exposures among migrant agricultural families: a community-based research approach.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McCauley, L A; Lasarev, M R; Higgins, G; Rothlein, J; Muniz, J; Ebbert, C; Phillips, J

    2001-05-01

    There are few data on pesticide exposures of migrant Latino farmworker children, and access to this vulnerable population is often difficult. In this paper we describe a community-based approach to implement culturally appropriate research methods with a migrant Latino farmworker community in Oregon. Assessments were conducted in 96 farmworker homes and 24 grower homes in two agricultural communities in Oregon. Measurements included surveys of pesticide use and work protection practices and analyses of home-dust samples for pesticide residues of major organophosphates used in area crops. Results indicate that migrant farmworker housing is diverse, and the amounts and types of pesticide residues found in homes differ. Azinphos-methyl (AZM) was the pesticide residue found most often in both farmworker and grower homes. The median level of AZM in farmworker homes was 1.45 ppm compared to 1.64 ppm in the entry area of grower homes. The median level of AZM in the play areas of grower homes was 0.71 ppm. The levels of AZM in migrant farmworker homes were most associated with the distance from fields and the number of agricultural workers in the home. Although the levels of AZM in growers and farmworker homes were comparable in certain areas, potential for disproportionate exposures occur in areas of the homes where children are most likely to play. The relationship between home resident density, levels of pesticide residues, and play behaviors of children merit further attention.

  14. Socio-technical, organizational and political dimensions of idea work in a mature industrial R&D setting

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gish, Liv

    aspects: 1) it is the real processes of idea work that are examined and described; and 2) by drawing on Science and Technology Studies, a new understanding of idea work is developed and presented, which emphasizes that ideas are constituted in and through the processes of their articulation......, Grundfos. The PhD study has aimed at understanding both conducive and hampering aspects in the work with ideas at Grundfos, as well as contributing to an internal learning process. Moreover, the study has aimed at developing a new understanding of idea work for use both in academia and in practice....... The overall research questions posed are: 1) how do designers work with ideas in a mature industrial R&D setting? And 2) how can work with ideas in a mature industrial R&D setting be stimulated and supported? These questions are examined in four research papers and finally answered in the conclusion...

  15. Student engagement in interprofessional working in practice placement settings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pollard, Katherine

    2009-10-01

    . To investigate the nature of student engagement in interprofessional interaction while on placement. Due to continuing emphasis on improving interprofessional collaboration, UK educational establishments are required to offer pre-qualifying health and social care students interprofessional education in order that they acquire relevant competencies. However, few formal interprofessional education initiatives occur in practice settings and little is known about pre-qualifying students' non-formal learning about interprofessional issues while on placement. From 2003-2005 an English Faculty of Health and Social Care conducted a qualitative study to explore opportunities for interprofessional learning and working available to students in practice placement settings. Case studies were conducted in a coronary care ward, a medical ward for older patients, a maternity unit, a paediatric unit, an integrated community learning disabilities team and a residential facility for adults with challenging behaviour. Gaining access was complex, due to variable student timetables and UK research governance requirements. Sites were therefore selected according to geographical area and timing of student placements. Details of interprofessional interaction (formal and informal) were observed and recorded. Interviews were conducted with a convenience sample of 20 practitioners and 15 students. Data were analysed thematically. Student experience varied considerably. Contributing factors included the influence of doctors and differing professional cultures; mentors' support for student engagement in interprofessional working; and individual students' confidence levels. Most sites were managed by nurses and some senior nurses were proactive in involving students interprofessionally. However, many students lacked systematic support for interprofessional engagement. Students lack parity of experience concerning interprofessional activity on placement. Where they do not have systematic

  16. Objectively Measured Total and Occupational Sedentary Time in Three Work Settings

    OpenAIRE

    van Dommelen, Paula; Coffeng, Jennifer K.; van der Ploeg, Hidde P.; van der Beek, Allard J.; Boot, C?cile R. L.; Hendriksen, Ingrid J. M.

    2016-01-01

    Background. Sedentary behaviour increases the risk for morbidity. Our primary aim is to determine the proportion and factors associated with objectively measured total and occupational sedentary time in three work settings. Secondary aim is to study the proportion of physical activity and prolonged sedentary bouts. Methods. Data were obtained using ActiGraph accelerometers from employees of: 1) a financial service provider (n = 49 men, 31 women), 2) two research institutes (n = 30 men, 57 wom...

  17. How is nutrition linked to agriculture and education?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sayed Mohammad Naim Khalid

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available Agricultural development is now expected to proceed in a way that maximizes opportunities to improve health and nutrition. Accordingly, the term “nutrition-education-agriculture linkages” describes the set of relationships that shows the mutual dependence of nutrition, education and agriculture. Changes in nutrition or education status are expected to affect agricultural production; conversely changes in the agricultural sector can have significant effects on individual health and nutritional status. Professionals in are trained in nutrition or agriculture, but very few will be trained in both. It is therefore difficult to begin discussions on nutrition-focused agricultural programs and policies. How do we begin to identify these linked outcomes? And how do we begin to think about ways to impact factors that are outside of our sector of expertise? This paper provides a simple framework for thinking critically about nutrition, education and agriculture linkages. The purpose is to help readers identify the linkages of greatest importance to their goals and to begin thinking about how to take steps toward integrating programs more effectively.

  18. Relationships between work outcomes, work attitudes and work environments of health support workers in Ontario long-term care and home and community care settings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Berta, Whitney; Laporte, Audrey; Perreira, Tyrone; Ginsburg, Liane; Dass, Adrian Rohit; Deber, Raisa; Baumann, Andrea; Cranley, Lisa; Bourgeault, Ivy; Lum, Janet; Gamble, Brenda; Pilkington, Kathryn; Haroun, Vinita; Neves, Paula

    2018-03-22

    Our overarching study objective is to further our understanding of the work psychology of Health Support Workers (HSWs) in long-term care and home and community care settings in Ontario, Canada. Specifically, we seek novel insights about the relationships among aspects of these workers' work environments, their work attitudes, and work outcomes in the interests of informing the development of human resource programs to enhance elder care. We conducted a path analysis of data collected via a survey administered to a convenience sample of Ontario HSWs engaged in the delivery of elder care over July-August 2015. HSWs' work outcomes, including intent to stay, organizational citizenship behaviors, and performance, are directly and significantly related to their work attitudes, including job satisfaction, work engagement, and affective organizational commitment. These in turn are related to how HSWs perceive their work environments including their quality of work life (QWL), their perceptions of supervisor support, and their perceptions of workplace safety. HSWs' work environments are within the power of managers to modify. Our analysis suggests that QWL, perceptions of supervisor support, and perceptions of workplace safety present particularly promising means by which to influence HSWs' work attitudes and work outcomes. Furthermore, even modest changes to some aspects of the work environment stand to precipitate a cascade of positive effects on work outcomes through work attitudes.

  19. Willingness to Venture into Agriculture-related Enterprises after ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    NTL NG

    agriculture was lost due to neglect of the sector as soon ... technologies as well as work on farms ... profession, not a hobby for everyone but for .... Enterprise of interest: Agriculture enterprise ... This implies that both genders were adequately.

  20. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, rural environment and agricultural work in the Local Health District of Ferrara, Italy, in the years 1964-1998.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Govoni, Vittorio; Granieri, Enrico; Fallica, Elisa; Casetta, Ilaria

    2005-11-01

    Previous epidemiological surveys, both analytic and descriptive, in the Local Health District (LHD) of Ferrara, northern Italy, have indicated that rural residence and agricultural work might constitute risk factors for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). The present investigation is a demographic survey in the LHD of Ferrara in the years 1964-1998 which aimed to verify whether the level of urbanization and agricultural activities might influence the risk of ALS. Based on the data obtained in a recent incidence study in the LHD of Ferrara which reported a mean annual crude incidence rate of ALS in the years 1964-1998 of 1.63 per 100,000 population (95 % CI 1.31-2.00), it was possible to compare the number of observed ALS cases and the number of expected ALS cases according to the level of urbanization and usual occupation on the basis of the residential and occupational pattern identified in the population of the LHD of Ferrara in the study period under the assumption of a homogeneous distribution of ALS. The present survey identified four different levels of urbanization in the LHD of Ferrara in the study period and for none of them was a difference between the number of observed and expected ALS cases found. Also in the most rural of the four identified levels of urbanization (small villages with an average population in the study period lower than 1,000 inhabitants and scattered houses in the countryside) no difference was found between observed and expected number of ALS cases (observed ALS cases 16, 95% Poisson CI 9.1-25.9, expected ALS cases 18.3). Based on the occupational pattern identified in the population of the LHD of Ferrara in the study period the number of incident cases of ALS whose usual occupation was in agricultural work exceeded the expected number (observed ALS cases 22, 95% Poisson CI 13.8-32.3, expected ALS cases 6.0). The present findings indicate that rural residence itself does not influence the risk of ALS while agricultural activities

  1. Implementation of a competency assessment tool for agency nurses working in an acute paediatric setting.

    LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

    Hennerby, Cathy

    2012-02-01

    AIM: This paper reports on the implementation of a competency assessment tool for registered general agency nurses working in an acute paediatric setting, using a change management framework. BACKGROUND: The increased number of registered general agency nurses working in an acute children\\'s hospital alerted concerns around their competency in working with children. These concerns were initially raised via informal complaints about \\'near misses\\

  2. Agriculture: Agriculture and Air Quality

    Science.gov (United States)

    Information on air emissions from agricultural practices, types of agricultural burning, air programs that may apply to agriculture, reporting requirements, and links to state and other federal air-quality information.

  3. Whole-Body Vibration in Farming: Background Document for Creating a Simplified Procedure to Determine Agricultural Tractor Vibration Comfort

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maurizio Cutini

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Operator exposure to high levels of whole-body vibration (WBV presents risks to health and safety and it is reported to worsen or even cause back injuries. Work activities resulting in operator exposure to whole-body vibration have a common onset in off-road work such as farming. Despite the wide variability of agricultural surface profiles, studies have shown that with changing soil profile and tractor speed, the accelerations resulting from ground input present similar spectral trends. While on the one hand such studies confirmed that tractor WBV emission levels are very dependent upon the nature of the operation performed, on the other, irrespective of the wide range of conditions characterizing agricultural operations, they led researchers to set up a possible and realistic simplification and standardization of tractor driver comfort testing activities. The studies presented herewith indicate the usefulness, and the possibility, of developing simplified procedures to determine agricultural tractor vibration comfort. The results obtained could be used effectively to compare tractors of the same category or a given tractor when equipped with different seats, suspension, tyres, etc.

  4. RESEARCH PRIORITY-SETTING IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA: POLICIES, METHODS AND PRACTICALITIES

    OpenAIRE

    Omuru, Eric; Kingwell, Ross S.

    2000-01-01

    Agricultural research priority-setting at best promotes the effective and efficient use of scarce research resources. This paper reviews firstly the priority-setting methods used in Papua New Guinea for agricultural R&D and examines the practicalities of implementing these and other methods. Secondly, this paper reports on key factors affecting the strategic directions for agricultural R&D in Papua New Guinea. These factors include:(i) the long term trends in international crop prices; (ii) l...

  5. Agricultural production data for the Sizewell area

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1982-11-01

    The proposed site for the Sizewell B nuclear power station is located at the centre of the East Suffolk coastline. The county itself is predominantly agricultural, producing a very wide range of foodstuffs which in the case of one or two particular foodstuffs contribute a significant proportion of the total national production. A general view of the agricultural setting within which the development would be sited and a compendium of more detailed agricultural data relating to the immediate vicinity of the site, which has been drawn on in the Ministry's assessment of the radiological impact of routine atmospheric waste emission, are given. (U.K.)

  6. Review of research to inform California's climate scoping plan: Agriculture and working lands

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ryan Byrnes

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Agriculture in California contributes 8% of the state's greenhouse gas (GHG emissions. To inform the state's policy and program strategy to meet climate targets, we review recent research on practices that can reduce emissions, sequester carbon and provide other co-benefits to producers and the environment across agriculture and rangeland systems. Importantly, the research reviewed here was conducted in California and addresses practices in our specific agricultural, socioeconomic and biophysical environment. Farmland conversion and the dairy and intensive livestock sector are the largest contributors to GHG emissions and offer the greatest opportunities for avoided emissions. We also identify a range of other opportunities including soil and nutrient management, integrated and diversified farming systems, rangeland management, and biomass-based energy generation. Additional research to replicate and quantify the emissions reduction or carbon sequestration potential of these practices will strengthen the evidence base for California climate policy.

  7. Emergy Evaluations of Denmark and Danish Agriculture. Assessing the Limits of Agricultural Systems to Power Society

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Haden, Andrew C [Swedish Univ. of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala (Sweden). Dept. of Rural Development Studies

    2003-03-01

    As the process of industrialization has run its course over the twentieth century, the relative importance of agriculture as an economic activity and a means of cultural sustenance for nations has declined dramatically. In this thesis, a historical ecological-economic perspective offers insights into both the causes and effects of Danish agriculture's decline in economic importance relative to the economy of Denmark as a whole. Emergy evaluations were made of the national economy and agricultural subsystem of Denmark for the years 1936, 1970 and 1999. Emergy is defined as all the available energy that was used in the work of making a product and expressed in units of one type of energy. In total, six separate emergy analyses were performed. By quantifying the emergy requirements of both a national agricultural system and the economy within which this system is nested, the analysis highlights the changing relationship of these two systems over a temporal scale of 63 years. The ecological sustainability of the studied systems is assessed through the calculation of emergy-based indices and ratios. In accordance with emergy theory, ecological sustainability is considered to be a function of the dependence of a system on renewable emergy, the degree to which the system depends on imported emergy, and the overall load that the system places on the environment. The analysis indicates that as the national economy of Denmark evolved to rely more on the use of nonrenewable emergy and on emergy appropriated through trade to stimulate economic activity and to generate wealth, its sustainability declined, and the importance of the Danish agricultural system to the national economy subsided. While the total amount of emergy supporting the economy of Denmark over the period studied increased substantially, the total emergy supporting agriculture remained relatively constant. Furthermore, though the emergy signature and thermodynamic efficiencies of Danish agricultural production

  8. Study of energy consumption in agriculture. An project commissioned by the Board of Agriculture; Kartlaeggning av jordbrukets energianvaendning. Ett projekt utfoert paa uppdrag av Jordbruksverket

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Baky, Andras; Sundberg, Martin; Brown, Nils

    2010-07-01

    JTI has, on behalf of the Swedish Board of Agriculture, conducted a study on energy consumption in agriculture. The study also proposes measures to reduce the energy use and includes an outlook towards the future of the Swedish agricultural development. The study is limited to the use of fuel and electricity used for field-work and in farm work and energy for heating. Energy for heating of residential buildings and drying is not included in the mandate. The Swedish agricultural uses about 3.11 TWh of energy in the form of gas, electricity, oil and biofuels, not including drying and greenhouses. In addition, approx. 3.64 TWh of energy are consumed indirectly, 2.31 TWh of which from fertilizer use. The Swedish agriculture is moving towards fewer but larger farms. The number of enterprises has decreased from 26000 in year 2005 to 21700 in 2009. Increased energy production, both as a supplier of raw materials and recipients of products means that energy use is affected. In the future energy use will probably be affected by an increase in farm-based production of energy, primarily biogas for cogeneration. The variations in estimates of energy use are large, and agriculture's total energy use can vary between 1.64 TWh to 4.04 TWh, depending on the data sets used. Since the use of diesel dominate over the use of electricity, it is interesting to focus on reducing diesel consumption. Field work and harvest are the activities where the largest consumption of diesel is made. Measures can be taken are primarily farmers are running in a more energy efficient way. Other measures are: Reduced tillage; Replacing transport with tractor-trailer by truck; Transport of manure with other equipment than their own spreader; Livestock use of energy is primarily electricity for lighting, ventilation, distribution, cleaning, feeding, etc. The largest variations in energy use are associated with animal husbandry. It is difficult to generally comment on actions in order to reduce energy

  9. Analysis on the Utility of Satellite Imagery for Detection of Agricultural Facility

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kang, J.-M.; Baek, S.-H.; Jung, K.-Y.

    2012-07-01

    Now that the agricultural facilities are being increase owing to development of technology and diversification of agriculture and the ratio of garden crops that are imported a lot and the crops cultivated in facilities are raised in Korea, the number of vinyl greenhouses is tending upward. So, it is important to grasp the distribution of vinyl greenhouses as much as that of rice fields, dry fields and orchards, but it is difficult to collect the information of wide areas economically and correctly. Remote sensing using satellite imagery is able to obtain data of wide area at the same time, quickly and cost-effectively collect, monitor and analyze information from every object on earth. In this study, in order to analyze the utilization of satellite imagery at detection of agricultural facility, image classification was performed about the agricultural facility, vinyl greenhouse using Formosat-2 satellite imagery. The training set of sea, vegetation, building, bare ground and vinyl greenhouse was set to monitor the agricultural facilities of the object area and the training set for the vinyl greenhouses that are main monitoring object was classified and set again into 3 types according the spectral characteristics. The image classification using 4 kinds of supervise classification methods applied by the same training set were carried out to grasp the image classification method which is effective for monitoring agricultural facilities. And, in order to minimize the misclassification appeared in the classification using the spectral information, the accuracy of classification was intended to be raised by adding texture information. The results of classification were analyzed regarding the accuracy comparing with that of naked-eyed detection. As the results of classification, the method of Mahalanobis distance was shown as more efficient than other methods and the accuracy of classification was higher when adding texture information. Hence the more effective

  10. ANALYSIS ON THE UTILITY OF SATELLITE IMAGERY FOR DETECTION OF AGRICULTURAL FACILITY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J.-M. Kang

    2012-07-01

    Full Text Available Now that the agricultural facilities are being increase owing to development of technology and diversification of agriculture and the ratio of garden crops that are imported a lot and the crops cultivated in facilities are raised in Korea, the number of vinyl greenhouses is tending upward. So, it is important to grasp the distribution of vinyl greenhouses as much as that of rice fields, dry fields and orchards, but it is difficult to collect the information of wide areas economically and correctly. Remote sensing using satellite imagery is able to obtain data of wide area at the same time, quickly and cost-effectively collect, monitor and analyze information from every object on earth. In this study, in order to analyze the utilization of satellite imagery at detection of agricultural facility, image classification was performed about the agricultural facility, vinyl greenhouse using Formosat-2 satellite imagery. The training set of sea, vegetation, building, bare ground and vinyl greenhouse was set to monitor the agricultural facilities of the object area and the training set for the vinyl greenhouses that are main monitoring object was classified and set again into 3 types according the spectral characteristics. The image classification using 4 kinds of supervise classification methods applied by the same training set were carried out to grasp the image classification method which is effective for monitoring agricultural facilities. And, in order to minimize the misclassification appeared in the classification using the spectral information, the accuracy of classification was intended to be raised by adding texture information. The results of classification were analyzed regarding the accuracy comparing with that of naked-eyed detection. As the results of classification, the method of Mahalanobis distance was shown as more efficient than other methods and the accuracy of classification was higher when adding texture information. Hence the more

  11. Stress and burnout among healthcare professionals working in a mental health setting in Singapore.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Suyi; Meredith, Pamela; Khan, Asaduzzaman

    2015-06-01

    International literature suggests that the experience of high levels of stress by healthcare professionals has been associated with decreased work efficiency and high rates of staff turnover. The aims of this study are to identify the extent of stress and burnout experienced by healthcare professionals working in a mental health setting in Singapore and to identify demographic characteristics and work situations associated with this stress and burnout. A total of 220 Singaporean mental health professionals completed a cross-sectional survey, which included measures of stress, burnout (exhaustion and disengagement), participants' demographic details, and working situation. Independent t-tests and one-way ANOVAs were used to examine between-group differences in the dependent variables (stress and burnout). Analyses revealed that healthcare professionals below the age of 25, those with less than five years experience, and those with the lowest annual income, reported the highest levels of stress and burnout. No significant differences were found with other demographic or work situation variables. Findings suggest that healthcare professionals working in a mental health setting in Singapore are experiencing relatively high levels of stress and burnout. It is important that clinicians, administrators and policy makers take proactive steps to develop programs aimed at reducing stress and burnout for healthcare professionals. These programs are likely to also increase the well-being and resilience of healthcare professionals and improve the quality of mental health services in Singapore. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  12. Concise set of files for smooth return to work in employees with mental disorders.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yoshitsugu, Kiyoshi; Kuroda, Yuko; Hiroyama, Yuji; Nagano, Nobuhisa

    2013-01-01

    Sick leave due to mental disorders is a societal problem. It carries a high cost in terms of loss of labor productivity and absenteeism. Partial remission increases the risk of relapse after a return to work. There is sometimes a difference between the ability to return to work as judged by a general practitioner (GP) and the needs of the workplace. GPs are the main controllers of treatment and tend to protect their patients. Communication and agreement by GPs and occupational physicians play an effective role in the return to work. However, it requires considerable effort for both of them to make time to do this. We have developed a concise set of files for a smooth return to work. The files consist of three parts: "Suggestions for corresponding with employees taking sick leave"; "Checklist for smooth return to work"; and "Pattern of living". We put them into practice among 20 companies in Japan from January 2012 to October 2013. The companies had 8244 workers in total and 116 workers were on sick-leave due to mental disorders. Our set of files contributed to sharing the written basic policy of return to work among employees on sick leave with mental disorders, GPs, occupational physicians and personnel officers. That sharing led to facilitating a smooth return to work. Although there are differences in the legal and medical systems between Japan and other countries, our concept of sharing the written basic policy may give some help to occupational physicians in other parts of the world as well.

  13. A conceptual framework for effectively anticipating water-quality changes resulting from changes in agricultural activities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Capel, Paul D.; Wolock, David M.; Coupe, Richard H.; Roth, Jason L.

    2018-01-10

    Agricultural activities can affect water quality and the health of aquatic ecosystems; many water-quality issues originate with the movement of water, agricultural chemicals, and eroded soil from agricultural areas to streams and groundwater. Most agricultural activities are designed to sustain or increase crop production, while some are designed to protect soil and water resources. Numerous soil- and water-protection practices are designed to reduce the volume and velocity of runoff and increase infiltration. This report presents a conceptual framework that combines generalized concepts on the movement of water, the environmental behavior of chemicals and eroded soil, and the designed functions of various agricultural activities, as they relate to hydrology, to create attainable expectations for the protection of—with the goal of improving—water quality through changes in an agricultural activity.The framework presented uses two types of decision trees to guide decision making toward attainable expectations regarding the effectiveness of changing agricultural activities to protect and improve water quality in streams. One decision tree organizes decision making by considering the hydrologic setting and chemical behaviors, largely at the field scale. This decision tree can help determine which agricultural activities could effectively protect and improve water quality in a stream from the movement of chemicals, or sediment, from a field. The second decision tree is a chemical fate accounting tree. This decision tree helps set attainable expectations for the permanent removal of sediment, elements, and organic chemicals—such as herbicides and insecticides—through trapping or conservation tillage practices. Collectively, this conceptual framework consolidates diverse hydrologic settings, chemicals, and agricultural activities into a single, broad context that can be used to set attainable expectations for agricultural activities. This framework also enables

  14. Minnesota 4-H Science of Agriculture Challenge: Infusing Agricultural Science and Engineering Concepts into 4-H Youth Development

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rice, Joshua E.; Rugg, Bradley; Davis, Sharon

    2016-01-01

    Youth involved in 4-H projects have been engaged in science-related endeavors for years. Since 2006, 4-H has invested considerable resources in the advancement of science learning. The new Minnesota 4-H Science of Agriculture Challenge program challenges 4-H youth to work together to identify agriculture-related issues in their communities and to…

  15. The Use of Proba-V data for Global Agricultural Monitoring

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gilliams, S. J. B.; Bydekerke, L.; Smets, B.; De Ronde, B.

    2014-12-01

    Land conversion, forest cutting, urban growth, agricultural expansion, take place at scales which are unprecedented in history and at such a pace that they are not only subject of scientific studies but also have a strong economic impact. Understanding and measuring dynamics becomes a prerequisite for companies, governments, agencies, NGO's, research institutes and society in general. In many of these cases the temporal frequency of the information is a clear requirement to detect phenomena that can occur within a few days (related to crops, forests and other ecosystems) and at a certain geographic scale. For example frequent updates on crop condition and production is needed to stabilize agricultural markets. This is already being picked up by large initiatives like the GEOGLAM AMIS system. Observations over large areas are available through satellites, however challenges remain; on the one hand side obtaining frequent and consistent observations at sufficient level of detail to identify spatial phenomena. At present, no single mission is capable of providing near daily information of any place in the world at scales in which changes in land cover/use can be identified in a consistent manner. On the other hand side the need for a historical reference. For agricultural monitoring and early warning purposes the comparison of the actual data with the historical reference is of the utmost importance. The Proba-V mission is a first attempt to overcome these challenges. From its design and within the GIO-Global Land component a lot of work has been done to ensure the integration of the Proba-V data with the 15 years historical archive of SPOT-VEGETATION. In this respect Proba-V observation will be intercomparable with the SPOT-VGT historical baseline which will ensure the continuation of the standard agricultural monitoring products. Next to this integration with the historical archive, Proba-V also ensures an increase in spatial resolution of the data sets, from 1km to

  16. BIODYNAMIC AGRICULTURE - ECO-FRIENDLY AGRICULTURAL PRACTICE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Veselka Vlahova

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Biodynamic agriculture is undoubtedly the oldest organized agricultural movement in the world. It is considered as an organic agricultural farming approach and determined as the oldest organized alternative agricultural movement in the world. In 1924 Rudolf Steiner – an Austrian natural scientist and philosopher, carried out a series of eight lectures in Koberwitz, currently Kobierzyce- Poland, where he formulated his visions on changes in agriculture and revealed his spiritual and scientific concepts about the connection between nature and agriculture by determining the important role of agriculture for the future of humanity and thus he became known as “the father of anthroposophy”. The great ecological effect of the application of the biodynamic agriculture is expressed in soil preservation and preservation of the living organisms in the soil, as well as maintenance of the natural balance in the vegetable and animal kingdom.

  17. Predicting aggregate properties of soil communities vs. comunity structure in an agricultural setting

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Demšar, D.; Džeroski, S.; Debeljak, M.

    2006-01-01

    approach of producing one model for the aggregate target variable is worse than the more complex approach of producing multiple models and then calculating the aggregate variable from the model outputs. We do this by taking a dataset describing the agricultural events and soil biological parameters...

  18. Current and desired competency levels of secondary agricultural teachers in Pennsylvania

    Science.gov (United States)

    Elbert, Chanda Dehron

    The purpose of this study was to identify the competencies needed by secondary agricultural teachers in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Specifically, this study identified competencies needed to help make teachers more effective while working with special needs students. The objectives of the study were to: (1) determine, verify, and evaluate competencies needed by secondary teachers of agriculture to work with handicapped students enrolled in agricultural and vocational education programs; (2) determine, verify, and evaluate competencies needed by secondary teachers of agriculture to work with economically disadvantaged students enrolled in agricultural and vocational education programs; (3) determine, verify, and evaluate competencies needed by secondary teachers of agriculture to work with academically challenged students enrolled in agricultural and vocational programs; and (4) evaluate the self-perceived competency levels of secondary agricultural education teachers and their desired competency levels. A 50% simple random sample of secondary agricultural teachers from the Directory for Agricultural Education in Pennsylvania, 1999--2000 was used. The design for the study was a descriptive study. The data collection instrument used was divided into five different areas: personal characteristics, professional role and development, instructional role, knowledge statements, and student leadership and organization. Subjects were asked to rate their present and desired levels of competency in the categories using a Likert-type scale. The competency scale was as follows: 1 = not competent; 2 = slightly competent, 3 = competent; 4 = very competent; 5 = extremely competent. There were 153 questionnaires mailed to the secondary agricultural education teachers. A total of 96 teachers responded to the questionnaire. Frequencies and distributions were used to describe demographic variables. T-test and analysis of variance were used to determine relationships between

  19. What Predicts Health Students' Self-Reported Preparedness to Work in Indigenous Health Settings?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bullen, Jonathan; Roberts, Lynne; Hoffman, Julie

    2017-01-01

    Australian undergraduate programs are implementing curriculum aimed at better preparing graduates to work in culturally diverse settings, but there remains uncertainty over the role of extant student attitudes towards Indigenous Australians. To begin to address this, we obtained baseline data on student attitudes upon entry to tertiary education.…

  20. New technologies and worker safety in western agriculture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fenske, Richard A

    2009-01-01

    The New Paths: Health and Safety in Western Agriculture conference, November 11-13, 2008, highlighted the role of technological innovation in agricultural production. The tree fruit industry in the Pacific Northwest has adopted a "technology road map" to reduce production costs and improve efficiency. An agricultural tour provided field demonstrations and discussions on such topics as mobile work platforms in orchards, traumatic and musculoskeletal injuries, and new pest control technologies. Occupational safety and health research will need to adapt to and keep pace with rapid changes in agricultural production processes.

  1. Cointegration and error correction modelling of agricultural commodity trade: The case of ASEAN agricultural exports to the EU

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J. NIEMI

    2008-12-01

    Full Text Available The objecti e of this study is to increase our understanding of the specification and estimation of agricultural commodity trade models as well as to provide instruments for trade policy analysis. More specifically,the aim is to build a set of dynamic,theory-based econometric models which are able to capture both short-run and long-run effects of income and price changes,and which can be used for prediction and policy simulation under alternati e assumed conditions.A relati ely unrestricted,data determined,econometric modelling approach based on the error correction mechanism is used,in order to emphasise the importance of dynamics of trade functions.Econometric models are constructed for se en agricultural commodities –cassa a,cocoa,coconut oil,palm oil,pepper, rubber,and tea –exported from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEANto the European Union (EU.With the aim of providing broad commodity co erage,the intent is to explore whether the chosen modelling approach is able to catch the essentials of the behavioural relationships underlying the specialised nature of each commodity market. The import demand analysis of the study examines two key features:(1the response of EU ’s agricultural commodity imports to income and price changes,and (2the length of time required for this response to occur.The estimations of the export demand relationships provide tests whether the exporters ’ market shares are influenced by the le el of relati e export price,and whether exports are affected by ariations in the rate of growth of imports.The export supply analysis examines the relati e influence of real price and some non-price factors in stimulating the supply of exports.The lag distribution (the shape and length of the lagis found to be ery critical in export supply relationships,since the effects of price changes usually take a long time to work themselves through and since the transmission of the price effects can be complex.The set of

  2. 76 FR 28730 - Notice of Intent To Suspend the Agricultural Labor Survey and Farm Labor Reports

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-05-18

    ... agricultural productivity; wage rates are used in the administration of the H-2A Program and for setting... DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE National Agricultural Statistics Service Notice of Intent To Suspend the Agricultural Labor Survey and Farm Labor Reports AGENCY: National Agricultural Statistics Service, USDA. ACTION...

  3. 76 FR 38110 - Notice of Intent To Resume the Agricultural Labor Survey and Farm Labor Reports.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-06-29

    ... agricultural productivity; wage rates are used in the administration of the H-2A Program and for setting... DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE National Agricultural Statistics Service Notice of Intent To Resume the Agricultural Labor Survey and Farm Labor Reports. AGENCY: National Agricultural Statistics Service, USDA...

  4. Communication Access for Deaf People in Healthcare Settings: Understanding the Work of American Sign Language Interpreters.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Olson, Andrea M; Swabey, Laurie

    Despite federal laws that mandate equal access and communication in all healthcare settings for deaf people, consistent provision of quality interpreting in healthcare settings is still not a reality, as recognized by deaf people and American Sign Language (ASL)-English interpreters. The purpose of this study was to better understand the work of ASL interpreters employed in healthcare settings, which can then inform on training and credentialing of interpreters, with the ultimate aim of improving the quality of healthcare and communication access for deaf people. Based on job analysis, researchers designed an online survey with 167 task statements representing 44 categories. American Sign Language interpreters (N = 339) rated the importance of, and frequency with which they performed, each of the 167 tasks. Categories with the highest average importance ratings included language and interpreting, situation assessment, ethical and professional decision making, manage the discourse, monitor, manage and/or coordinate appointments. Categories with the highest average frequency ratings included the following: dress appropriately, adapt to a variety of physical settings and locations, adapt to working with variety of providers in variety of roles, deal with uncertain and unpredictable work situations, and demonstrate cultural adaptability. To achieve health equity for the deaf community, the training and credentialing of interpreters needs to be systematically addressed.

  5. Transgenesis, agriculture and environment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Leon Sicard, Tomas

    2004-01-01

    Starting from the reference point of view given by the environmental theory, we discuses the green revolution agriculture model in their main cultural and ecosystem aspects and, starting from there, the transgenic pattern is analyzed. This paper emphasizes in the new relationships derived from the farmers' dependence in connection with the transnational companies, in the right of the consumers to choose their foods and in the possible environmental effects of these technologies. Finally this work shows the incompatibility between the ecological agriculture and the transgenic plants, and some routes of culture rupture that are propitiated by these technologies

  6. Human Rights: Its Meaning and Practice in Social Work Field Settings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Steen, Julie A; Mann, Mary; Restivo, Nichole; Mazany, Shellene; Chapple, Reshawna

    2017-01-01

    The goal of the study reported in this article was to explore the conceptualizations of human rights and human rights practice among students and supervisors in social work field settings. Data were collected from 35 students and 48 supervisors through an online survey system that featured two open-ended questions regarding human rights issues in their agency and human rights practice tasks. Responses suggest that participants encountered human rights issues related to poverty, discrimination, participation/self-determination/autonomy, violence, dignity/respect, privacy, and freedom/liberty. They saw human rights practice as encompassing advocacy, service provision, assessment, awareness of threats to clients' rights, and the nature of the worker-client relationship. These results have implications for the social work profession, which has an opportunity to focus more intently on change efforts that support clients' rights. The study points to the possibilities of expanding the scope of the human rights competency within social work education and addressing the key human rights issues in field education. © 2016 National Association of Social Workers.

  7. Modelling fatigue and the use of fatigue models in work settings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dawson, Drew; Ian Noy, Y; Härmä, Mikko; Akerstedt, Torbjorn; Belenky, Gregory

    2011-03-01

    In recent years, theoretical models of the sleep and circadian system developed in laboratory settings have been adapted to predict fatigue and, by inference, performance. This is typically done using the timing of prior sleep and waking or working hours as the primary input and the time course of the predicted variables as the primary output. The aim of these models is to provide employers, unions and regulators with quantitative information on the likely average level of fatigue, or risk, associated with a given pattern of work and sleep with the goal of better managing the risk of fatigue-related errors and accidents/incidents. The first part of this review summarises the variables known to influence workplace fatigue and draws attention to the considerable variability attributable to individual and task variables not included in current models. The second part reviews the current fatigue models described in the scientific and technical literature and classifies them according to whether they predict fatigue directly by using the timing of prior sleep and wake (one-step models) or indirectly by using work schedules to infer an average sleep-wake pattern that is then used to predict fatigue (two-step models). The third part of the review looks at the current use of fatigue models in field settings by organizations and regulators. Given their limitations it is suggested that the current generation of models may be appropriate for use as one element in a fatigue risk management system. The final section of the review looks at the future of these models and recommends a standardised approach for their use as an element of the 'defenses-in-depth' approach to fatigue risk management. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  8. Agricultural experts’ attitude towards precision agriculture: Evidence from Guilan Agricultural Organization, Northern Iran

    OpenAIRE

    Mohammad Sadegh Allahyari; Masoumeh Mohammadzadeh; Stefanos A. Nastis

    2016-01-01

    Identifying factors that influence the attitudes of agricultural experts regarding precision agriculture plays an important role in developing, promoting and establishing precision agriculture. The aim of this study was to identify factors affecting the attitudes of agricultural experts regarding the implementation of precision agriculture. A descriptive research design was employed as the research method. A research-made questionnaire was used to examine the agricultural experts’ attitude to...

  9. Agriculture

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Goetz, B.; Riss, A.; Zethner, G.

    2001-01-01

    This chapter deals with fertilization techniques, bioenergy from agriculture, environmental aspects of a common agriculture policy in the European Union, bio-agriculture, fruit farming in Austria and with environmental indicators in agriculture. In particular renewable energy sources (bio-diesel, biogas) from agriculture are studied in comparison to fossil fuels and other energy sources. (a.n.)

  10. Farm to Work: Development of a Modified Community-Supported Agriculture Model at Worksites, 2007-2012.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thi, Christina A; Horton, Karissa D; Loyo, Jennifer; Jowers, Esbelle M; Rodgers, Lindsay Faith; Smiley, Andrew W; Leversen, Eric; Hoelscher, Deanna M

    2015-10-22

    The Farm to Work program is a modified community-supported agriculture model at worksites in Texas. The objective of the Farm to Work program is to increase fruit and vegetable intake among employees and their households by decreasing cost, improving convenience, and increasing access while also creating a new market for local farmers at worksites. The objectives of this article were to describe the development, implementation, and outcome of a 5-year participation trend analysis and to describe the community relationships that were formed to enable the successful implementation of the program. The Farm to Work program began in November 2007 as a collaborative effort between the nonprofit Sustainable Food Center, the Texas Department of State Health Services, the Web development company WebChronic Consulting LLC, and Naegelin Farm. The program provides a weekly or biweekly opportunity for employees to order a basket of produce online to be delivered to the worksite by a local farmer. A 5-year participation trend analysis, including seasonal variation and sales trends, was conducted using sales data from November 2007 through December 2012. The total number of baskets delivered from November 2007 through December 2012 was 38,343; of these, 37,466 were sold and 877 were complimentary. The total value of sold and complimentary baskets was $851,035 and $21,925, respectively. Participation in the program increased over time and was highest in 2012. The Farm to Work program increased access to locally grown fruits and vegetables for employees and created a new market for farmers. Increased program participation indicates that Farm to Work can increase employees' fruit and vegetable consumption and thus help prevent chronic diseases in this population.

  11. A Cache-Oblivious Implicit Dictionary with the Working Set Property

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Brodal, Gerth Stølting; Kejlberg-Rasmussen, Casper; Truelsen, Jakob

    2010-01-01

    In this paper we present an implicit dictionary with the working set property i.e. a dictionary supporting \\op{insert}($e$), \\op{delete}($x$) and \\op{predecessor}($x$) in~$\\O(\\log n)$ time and \\op{search}($x$) in $\\O(\\log\\ell)$ time, where $n$ is the number of elements stored in the dictionary...... and $\\ell$ is the number of distinct elements searched for since the element with key~$x$ was last searched for. The dictionary stores the elements in an array of size~$n$ using \\emph{no} additional space. In the cache-oblivious model the operations \\op{insert}($e$), \\op{delete}($x$) and \\op...

  12. Brief history of agricultural systems modeling.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jones, James W; Antle, John M; Basso, Bruno; Boote, Kenneth J; Conant, Richard T; Foster, Ian; Godfray, H Charles J; Herrero, Mario; Howitt, Richard E; Janssen, Sander; Keating, Brian A; Munoz-Carpena, Rafael; Porter, Cheryl H; Rosenzweig, Cynthia; Wheeler, Tim R

    2017-07-01

    Agricultural systems science generates knowledge that allows researchers to consider complex problems or take informed agricultural decisions. The rich history of this science exemplifies the diversity of systems and scales over which they operate and have been studied. Modeling, an essential tool in agricultural systems science, has been accomplished by scientists from a wide range of disciplines, who have contributed concepts and tools over more than six decades. As agricultural scientists now consider the "next generation" models, data, and knowledge products needed to meet the increasingly complex systems problems faced by society, it is important to take stock of this history and its lessons to ensure that we avoid re-invention and strive to consider all dimensions of associated challenges. To this end, we summarize here the history of agricultural systems modeling and identify lessons learned that can help guide the design and development of next generation of agricultural system tools and methods. A number of past events combined with overall technological progress in other fields have strongly contributed to the evolution of agricultural system modeling, including development of process-based bio-physical models of crops and livestock, statistical models based on historical observations, and economic optimization and simulation models at household and regional to global scales. Characteristics of agricultural systems models have varied widely depending on the systems involved, their scales, and the wide range of purposes that motivated their development and use by researchers in different disciplines. Recent trends in broader collaboration across institutions, across disciplines, and between the public and private sectors suggest that the stage is set for the major advances in agricultural systems science that are needed for the next generation of models, databases, knowledge products and decision support systems. The lessons from history should be

  13. Towards an integral approach to sustainable agriculture and healthy nutrition : vision of the Scientific Council for Integral Sustainable Agriculture and Nutrition

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Weijden, van der W.J.; Huber, M.A.S.; Jetten, T.H.; Blom, P.; Egmond, Van N.D.; Lauwers, L.; Ommen, van B.; Vilsteren, van A.; Wijffels, H.H.F.; Zijpp, van der A.J.; Lammerts Van Bueren, E.

    2012-01-01

    Sustainable agriculture and healthy nutrition are high on the social agenda. Work is now being done to face both challenges, often with measurable success. However, huge changes are still needed and some problems have even been exacerbated. Although agriculture and nutrition are closely linked, both

  14. Work setting, community attachment, and satisfaction among rural and remote nurses.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kulig, Judith C; Stewart, Norma; Penz, Kelly; Forbes, Dorothy; Morgan, Debra; Emerson, Paige

    2009-01-01

    To describe community satisfaction and attachment among rural and remote registered nurses (RNs) in Canada. Cross-sectional survey of rural and remote RNs in Canada as part of a multimethod study.The sample consisted of a stratified random sample of RNs living in rural areas of the western country and the total population of RNs who worked in three northern regional areas and those in outpost settings. A subset of 3,331 rural and remote RNs who mainly worked in acute care, long-term care, community health, home care, and primary care comprised the sample. The home community satisfaction scale measured community satisfaction, whereas single-item questions measured work community satisfaction and overall job satisfaction. Community variables were compared across practice areas using analysis of variance, whereas a thematic analysis was conducted of the open-ended questions. Home care and community health RNs were significantly more satisfied with their work community than RNs from other practice areas. RNs who grew up in rural communities were more satisfied with their current home community. Four themes emerged from the open-ended responses that describe community satisfaction and community attachment. Recruitment and retention strategies need to include mechanisms that focus on community satisfaction, which will enhance job satisfaction.

  15. Climate Change and Agricultural Vulnerability

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fischer, G.; Shah, M.; Van Velthuizen, H.

    2002-08-01

    After the introduction Chapter 2 presents details of the ecological-economic analysis based on the FAO/IIASA agro-ecological zones (AEZ) approach for evaluation of biophysical limitations and agricultural production potentials, and IIASA's Basic Linked System (BLS) for analyzing the world's food economy and trade system. The BLS is a global general equilibrium model system for analyzing agricultural policies and food system prospects in an international setting. BLS views national agricultural systems as embedded in national economies, which interact with each other through trade at the international level. The combination of AEZ and BLS provides an integrated ecological-economic framework for the assessment of the impact of climate change. We consider climate scenarios based on experiments with four General Circulation Models (GCM), and we assess the four basic socioeconomic development pathways and emission scenarios as formulated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its Third Assessment Report. Chapter 3 presents the main AEZ results of the impact of climate change on agriculture. Results comprise environmental constraints to crop agriculture; climate variability and the variability of rain-fed cereal production; changes in potential agricultural land; changes in crop-production patterns; and the impact of climate change on cereal-production potential. Chapter 4 discusses the AEZ-BLS integrated ecological-economic analysis of climate change on the world food system. This includes quantification of scale and location of hunger, international agricultural trade, prices, production, land use, etc. It assesses trends in food production, trade, and consumption, and the impact on poverty and hunger of alternative development pathways and varying levels of climate change. Chapter 5 presents the main conclusions and policy implications of this study

  16. Nursing Care as Perceived by Nurses Working in Disability Community Settings in Greece.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fotiadou, Elpida; Malliarou, Maria; Zetta, Stella; Gouva, Mary; Kotrotsiou, Evaggelia

    2015-06-25

    The concept of nursing care in learning disability community settings has not been investigated in Greece. The aim of this paper is to investigate how nurses working in learning disability community settings perceive the meaning of nursing care. The sample consisted of 100 nurses and nursing assistants working in a social care hospice. Participants were asked to answer questions about socio- demographic characteristics of the sample and fill in a questionnaire of care (GR-NDI-24), the "Job-Communication-Satisfaction-Importance" (JCSI) questionnaire and the altruism scale of Ahmed and Jackson. The data analysis was realized with statistical methods of descriptive and inductive statistics. The analysis was made with the use of SPSS (version 19). The majority of the sample was women (78%). The majority of participants were married (66 %), DE graduates (66%) without postgraduate studies (96.7%). The mean age of respondents was 36.98±6.70 years. On the scales of caring and altruism, the mean values were 40.89±15.87 and 28.12±4.16 respectively. Very or fully satisfied with his work was 72% of the sample. The scope of work emerges as the most important factor influencing job satisfaction. The wages and working conditions (73% and 40% respectively) are the parameters of work which gathers the most dissatisfaction, while the salary is emerging as the most important parameter, the improvement of which would provide the highest satisfaction. Marginally statistically significant difference was observed in the range between TE graduates (d=40) and those of the DE grade (d=37), p=0.053. No statistically significant differences were observed in relation to other working and demographic characteristics (p>0.05). Greater care importance was associated with greater job satisfaction (pmateriality of care and job satisfaction in future research will allow to further highlight all the aspects affecting job satisfaction and performance of nurses. This will identify critical

  17. Duration and setting of rural immersion during the medical degree relates to rural work outcomes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    O'Sullivan, Belinda; McGrail, Matthew; Russell, Deborah; Walker, Judi; Chambers, Helen; Major, Laura; Langham, Robyn

    2018-04-19

    Providing year-long rural immersion as part of the medical degree is commonly used to increase the number of doctors with an interest in rural practice. However, the optimal duration and setting of immersion has not been fully established. This paper explores associations between various durations and settings of rural immersion during the medical degree and whether doctors work in rural areas after graduation. Eligible participants were medical graduates of Monash University between 2008 and 2016 in postgraduate years 1-9, whose characteristics, rural immersion information and work location had been prospectively collected. Separate multiple logistic regression and multinomial logit regression models tested associations between the duration and setting of any rural immersion they did during the medical degree and (i) working in a rural area and (ii) working in large or smaller rural towns, in 2017. The adjusted odds of working in a rural area were significantly increased if students were immersed for one full year (odds ratio [OR], 1.79; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.15-2.79), for between 1 and 2 years (OR, 2.26; 95% CI, 1.54-3.32) and for 2 or more years (OR, 4.43; 95% CI, 3.03-6.47) relative to no rural immersion. The strongest association was for immersion in a mix of both regional hospitals and rural general practice (OR, 3.26; 95% CI, 2.31-4.61), followed by immersion in regional hospitals only (OR, 1.94; 95% CI, 1.39-2.70) and rural general practice only (OR, 1.91; 95% CI, 1.06-3.45). More than 1 year's immersion in a mix of regional hospitals and rural general practices was associated with working in smaller regional or rural towns (immersion programmes. Longer rural immersion and immersion in both regional hospitals and rural general practices are likely to increase rural work and rural distribution of early career doctors. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd and The Association for the Study of Medical Education.

  18. Some agricultural aspects of seed longevity (literature review

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Roman Hołubowicz

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available There has been a vast and numerous literature concerning seed longevity. Most of these works however has focused solely on theoretical and biological aspects of this problem. Some works although deal with practical problems of seed storage. vigour or deterioration. have had relatively little connection with agricultural crops. practical farming or gardening. Therefore, there has been a need to look at this problem from the seednian's and farmer's point of view. The paper comments on how long seeds of agricultural crops species can keep their longevity, how long it is economically reasonable to store them. the effect of the seeds chemical composition on their longevity, how seeds storage conditions can be modified in order to eventually improve their longevity and environment circumstances influence on the final seed longevity. The paper contains a synthetic summary of expected seed longevity of the most important agricultural species and many examples of long longevity of agricultural species.

  19. Agriculture: About EPA's National Agriculture Center

    Science.gov (United States)

    EPA's National Agriculture Center (Ag Center), with the support of the United States Department of Agriculture, serves growers, livestock producers, other agribusinesses, and agricultural information/education providers.

  20. Agriculture 2008. The critical agrarian report. Main topic 2008: Agriculture as an energy producer; Landwirtschaft 2008. Der kritische Agrarbericht. Schwerpunkt 2008: Landwirtschaft als Energieerzeuger

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Schneider, M.; Fink-Kessler, A.; Stodieck, F. (comps.)

    2008-01-15

    The focus of the critical agrarian report in this year is the topic 'agriculture as an energy producer'. In 44 contributions, the agrarian events of the year 2007 are analyzed and the setting the points for the future are discussed. The topics of this report are: Agricultural policy and social situation, world trade and nutrition, ecological agriculture, production and market, regional market, regional development, nature and environment, forest, animal protection and animal husbandry, genetic engineering, agrarian culture, consumer and nourishing culture.

  1. Emergy Evaluations of Denmark and Danish Agriculture. Assessing the Limits of Agricultural Systems to Power Society

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Haden, Andrew C. [Swedish Univ. of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala (Sweden). Dept. of Rural Development Studies

    2003-03-01

    As the process of industrialization has run its course over the twentieth century, the relative importance of agriculture as an economic activity and a means of cultural sustenance for nations has declined dramatically. In this thesis, a historical ecological-economic perspective offers insights into both the causes and effects of Danish agriculture's decline in economic importance relative to the economy of Denmark as a whole. Emergy evaluations were made of the national economy and agricultural subsystem of Denmark for the years 1936, 1970 and 1999. Emergy is defined as all the available energy that was used in the work of making a product and expressed in units of one type of energy. In total, six separate emergy analyses were performed. By quantifying the emergy requirements of both a national agricultural system and the economy within which this system is nested, the analysis highlights the changing relationship of these two systems over a temporal scale of 63 years. The ecological sustainability of the studied systems is assessed through the calculation of emergy-based indices and ratios. In accordance with emergy theory, ecological sustainability is considered to be a function of the dependence of a system on renewable emergy, the degree to which the system depends on imported emergy, and the overall load that the system places on the environment. The analysis indicates that as the national economy of Denmark evolved to rely more on the use of nonrenewable emergy and on emergy appropriated through trade to stimulate economic activity and to generate wealth, its sustainability declined, and the importance of the Danish agricultural system to the national economy subsided. While the total amount of emergy supporting the economy of Denmark over the period studied increased substantially, the total emergy supporting agriculture remained relatively constant. Furthermore, though the emergy signature and thermodynamic efficiencies of Danish agricultural

  2. Rapid, global demographic expansions after the origins of agriculture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gignoux, Christopher R; Henn, Brenna M; Mountain, Joanna L

    2011-04-12

    The invention of agriculture is widely assumed to have driven recent human population growth. However, direct genetic evidence for population growth after independent agricultural origins has been elusive. We estimated population sizes through time from a set of globally distributed whole mitochondrial genomes, after separating lineages associated with agricultural populations from those associated with hunter-gatherers. The coalescent-based analysis revealed strong evidence for distinct demographic expansions in Europe, southeastern Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa within the past 10,000 y. Estimates of the timing of population growth based on genetic data correspond neatly to dates for the initial origins of agriculture derived from archaeological evidence. Comparisons of rates of population growth through time reveal that the invention of agriculture facilitated a fivefold increase in population growth relative to more ancient expansions of hunter-gatherers.

  3. Evolution of Organic Agriculture within Theoretical Frameworks of Structural Change and Transformation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rasmussen, Ole Horn

    with the idea of organic agriculture, agricultural structural change and transformation. However, the search for an answer to the research question starts with a contribution with a fragmentary status. Marshall and the theory of externalities present a deepen of the Danish agricultural economists...... it is possibly to draw a link to our initially discussion about definition of organic agriculture. The principles between conventional and organic agriculture differ. We have two kinds of rationalities. Exactly such approach is the methodological hard core in the works of Chayanov and we link to a tentative...... suggestion for working towards, as a minimum, a double definition of organic agriculture. The last "agricultural economist" is Hvelplund. Despite his position as a researcher within energy, we have different arguments for our presentation of him here. The first argument is that Hvelplund is occupied...

  4. TECHNICAL ADVANCE AS A BASES DYNAMIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE ECONOMY AGRICULTURAL ENTERPRISES REGION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    P.I. Ogorodnikov

    2009-12-01

    Full Text Available In the article coordinate together technical advance and economic indicators of agricultural enterprise. Justified, that lowering equipment branch crop production and cattle breeding result in considerable loss productiveness and rise expense. Necessity cost cutout determine application more high-performance machine and state-of-the-art technology on output of products agricultural industry. Underline practicability of active state support grower of agricultural produce agricultural commodities inclusive of securing social setting conditions of life man agricultural enterprise.

  5. Automatically Maintain Climatic Conditions inside Agricultural Greenhouses

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ali Jasim Ramadhan

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available In this work, a novel system is designed to remote monitor / automatic control of the temperature, humidity and soil moisture of the agricultural greenhouses. In the proposed system, the author used the mentioned sensors for monitoring the climatic conditions of the agricultural greenhouses; and the system makes a controlling process to fix the required parameters for plant growth by running / stopping the fan, air exchanger and irrigation devices when any changes happened in these parameters. The presented system is based on XBee protocol in the implemented wireless sensor star topology network (WSN to monitor the agricultural greenhouses in real time, and used the GSM and Internet technologies to monitor the agricultural greenhouses from anywhere.

  6. Metrics and Agricultural Science - measuring Multidisciplinary and Applied Research

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Holt, I.

    2016-07-01

    If we focus on the agricultural field, we see a kaleidoscopic picture. Agriculture includes a wide variety of economic activities, ranging from crop husbandry to cattle breeding and industrial processing of non-food products. It is often used in a broad sense to include for example forestry, aquaculture and fisheries. Agricultural sciences use methods from a wide variety of disciplines ranging from sociology to genomics. Although agricultural sciences are applied sciences there is a gamut from more fundamental studies to understand underlying processes to applied work to produce results that can be used directly in agricultural practice. (Author)

  7. Mental wellbeing of children engaged in agricultural work activities and quality of family environment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lachowski, Stanisław; Lachowska, Bogusława

    2007-01-01

    A considerable percentage of Polish children from agricultural families are engaged by their parents in performing work activities on farms. The performance of these tasks arouses various emotional reactions in children, from the feeling of threat, fear and anxiety, to the feeling of satisfaction, being contented and proud. The subjective feeling of happiness and life satisfaction is an extremely important factor affecting the mental health and functioning of a human being. The objective of the study was to show to what extent the quality of communication between children and parents, and the level of family cohesion and adaptability according to the Circumplex Model by D. H. Olson et al., modifies children's emotional reactions associated with the tasks performed. The study covered 192 children aged 12-13, whose parents were running a family farm. Growing up in a healthy family characterised by a balanced level of cohesion, adaptability and good communication with the father and mother, favours the occurrence in children of pleasant emotions in reaction to work which they undertake on behalf of their parents on a farm. In such families, more often than in families with bad communication and dysfunctional families (disengaged, rigid), children experience satisfaction, have a feeling of deepening bonds with their parents, and the feeling of being more adult and preparing themselves well for adult life. Family characteristics which are evidence of disorders in its functioning (lack of good communication with the father, mother, lack of bonds between family members, rigid, chaos in a family) co-occur with the child experiencing unpleasant emotional states in associated with the work performed, there occur feelings of dissatisfaction, unhappiness, unpleasantness, the feeling that it would be better to learn than to work.

  8. Teaching Materials for Environmental Related Courses in Agriculture Occupations Programs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bohning, Kermit B.; Stitt, Thomas R.

    The lesson plans were designed to provide the practicing applied biological and agricultural occupations teacher with a series of units setting down a basic foundation in Environmental Education. Nine lesson plans cover (1) ecosystems and agriculture, (2) biotic communities and food chains, (3) energy and nutrient flow, (4) land use and supply,…

  9. Assessment of ICT Utilization in Agriculture Across-Gender in Enugu ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The study assessed ICT utilization in agriculture across gender in Enugu-Ezike agricultural zone of Enugu State, Nigeria. Ninety (90) rural farmers (across gender) were interviewed for the purpose of eliciting information. The respondents had high access to mobile phone ( x =1.90), radio sets ( x =1.92) and television ( x ...

  10. 77 FR 31153 - Providing an Order of Succession Within the Department of Agriculture

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-05-24

    ... Providing an Order of Succession Within the Department of Agriculture By the authority vested in me as... set forth in the Act, the following officials of the Department of Agriculture, in the order listed, shall act as and perform the functions and duties of the office of Secretary of Agriculture (Secretary...

  11. Waste heat utilization in agriculture

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Horacek, P.

    1983-01-01

    The Proceedings contain 17 papers presented at meetings of the Working Group for Waste Heat Utilization of the Committee of the European Society of Nuclear Methods in Agriculture of which 7 fall under the INIS scope. The working group met in May 1980 in Brno, Czechoslovakia, in October 1981 in Aberdeen, Scotland and in September 1982 in Brno. (Z.M.)

  12. Perceptions and Educational Strategies of Louisiana Agricultural Education Teachers When Working with Students with Special Needs

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kristin S. Stair

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available A teacher’s willingness to accept inclusion has been identified as an indicator of the quality of experience that a student with special needs will have in the classroom The purpose of this exploratory study was twofold: (1 to describe the overall perceptions of working with students with special needs and (2 to determine how teachers in Louisiana are currently working with students with special needs.  A total of 152 teachers attended the Louisiana agricultural education teacher’s summer conference with 43% completing a three part survey instrument.  Data analysis indicated that teachers are confident in their ability to work with students with special needs and they agree that they can incorporate various areas of inclusion within their programs. However, they disagreed that they have received adequate in-service opportunities related to special education.  Regarding educational strategies, teachers in this study identified all of the given inclusion strategies as being used regularly in their programs with the exception of tutoring after school.  They also identified these educational practices as being highly effective within their programs. Due to the exploratory nature of this study, additional research is recommended to further investigate the in-service and training needs of teachers in Louisiana.

  13. Agricultural SWOT analysis and wisdom agriculture design of chengdu

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Qian; Chen, Xiangyu; Du, Shaoming; Yin, Guowei; Yu, Feng; Liu, Guicai; Gong, Jin; Han, Fujun

    2017-08-01

    According to the status of agricultural information, this paper analyzed the advantages, opportunities and challenges of developing wisdom agriculture in Chengdu. By analyzed the local characteristics of Chengdu agriculture, the construction program of Chengdu wisdom agriculture was designed, which was based on the existing agricultural informatization. The positioning and development theme of Chengdu agriculture is leisure agriculture, urban agriculture and quality agriculture.

  14. 7 CFR 1948.83 - Performance of site development work.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 13 2010-01-01 2009-01-01 true Performance of site development work. 1948.83 Section 1948.83 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) RURAL HOUSING SERVICE... Development Assistance Program § 1948.83 Performance of site development work. Site development work will be...

  15. Organic Agriculture in Middle European Countries

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Željka Šiljković

    2002-01-01

    Full Text Available In the last decade, organic agriculture in the Central European countries has experienced significant changes, especially in the transitional countries of the Eastern part of the region. This artical studies the position and development of the organic food comparing the agricultures in the western market and former communist countries. It is distinctive for the whole region that there is an interest of the state policy for stimulating the organic agriculture, aspecially in the areas where share is a large number of unemployed people due to the privatisation proces in industry. The organic type of cattle – raising is a represented branch of agriculture while the activities which demand more investments and working hours (horticulture and viticulture are poorly developed. The aim is to bring more biological varieties in the concept of organic agriculture and preserving the naturally protected areas. Therefore the organic agriculture is fregmently introduced as the only acceptable way of the food production in the areas of buffer zones and national parks preserving the autochthonism of the plants and animals in that way encouraging the development of agroeco-tourism.

  16. Career Pathways for Related Service Paratherapists Working in Early Intervention and Other Education Settings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Longhurst, Thomas M.

    1997-01-01

    Discusses issues in personnel training practices for paraprofessionals providing related services in early intervention and education settings. The term paratherapist is used to refer to paraprofessionals working under the supervision of professionals in physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech-language pathology. Presents a philosophy…

  17. Trends in family labour, hired labour and contract work on French and Swiss crop farms: The role of agricultural policies

    OpenAIRE

    Dupraz, Pierre; Latruffe, Laure; Mann, Stefan

    2010-01-01

    The objective of this article is to analyse the trends in on-farm labour use, including own family labour, hired labour and contract work, and to assess the factors driving their evolution in France and in Switzerland during 1990-2007. A particular attention is given to agricultural policies, namely the level and type of support. Results indicate that crop area payments discourage the different labour demands in both countries, while environment and investment payments favour contract and hir...

  18. Quality Evaluation of Agricultural Distillates Using an Electronic Nose

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tomasz Dymerski

    2013-11-01

    Full Text Available The paper presents the application of an electronic nose instrument to fast evaluation of agricultural distillates differing in quality. The investigations were carried out using a prototype of electronic nose equipped with a set of six semiconductor sensors by FIGARO Co., an electronic circuit converting signal into digital form and a set of thermostats able to provide gradient temperature characteristics to a gas mixture. A volatile fraction of the agricultural distillate samples differing in quality was obtained by barbotage. Interpretation of the results involved three data analysis techniques: principal component analysis, single-linkage cluster analysis and cluster analysis with spheres method. The investigations prove the usefulness of the presented technique in the quality control of agricultural distillates. Optimum measurements conditions were also defined, including volumetric flow rate of carrier gas (15 L/h, thermostat temperature during the barbotage process (15 °C and time of sensor signal acquisition from the onset of the barbotage process (60 s.

  19. Quality evaluation of agricultural distillates using an electronic nose.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dymerski, Tomasz; Gębicki, Jacek; Wardencki, Waldemar; Namieśnik, Jacek

    2013-11-25

    The paper presents the application of an electronic nose instrument to fast evaluation of agricultural distillates differing in quality. The investigations were carried out using a prototype of electronic nose equipped with a set of six semiconductor sensors by FIGARO Co., an electronic circuit converting signal into digital form and a set of thermostats able to provide gradient temperature characteristics to a gas mixture. A volatile fraction of the agricultural distillate samples differing in quality was obtained by barbotage. Interpretation of the results involved three data analysis techniques: principal component analysis, single-linkage cluster analysis and cluster analysis with spheres method. The investigations prove the usefulness of the presented technique in the quality control of agricultural distillates. Optimum measurements conditions were also defined, including volumetric flow rate of carrier gas (15 L/h), thermostat temperature during the barbotage process (15 °C) and time of sensor signal acquisition from the onset of the barbotage process (60 s).

  20. Maximum margin classifier working in a set of strings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koyano, Hitoshi; Hayashida, Morihiro; Akutsu, Tatsuya

    2016-03-01

    Numbers and numerical vectors account for a large portion of data. However, recently, the amount of string data generated has increased dramatically. Consequently, classifying string data is a common problem in many fields. The most widely used approach to this problem is to convert strings into numerical vectors using string kernels and subsequently apply a support vector machine that works in a numerical vector space. However, this non-one-to-one conversion involves a loss of information and makes it impossible to evaluate, using probability theory, the generalization error of a learning machine, considering that the given data to train and test the machine are strings generated according to probability laws. In this study, we approach this classification problem by constructing a classifier that works in a set of strings. To evaluate the generalization error of such a classifier theoretically, probability theory for strings is required. Therefore, we first extend a limit theorem for a consensus sequence of strings demonstrated by one of the authors and co-workers in a previous study. Using the obtained result, we then demonstrate that our learning machine classifies strings in an asymptotically optimal manner. Furthermore, we demonstrate the usefulness of our machine in practical data analysis by applying it to predicting protein-protein interactions using amino acid sequences and classifying RNAs by the secondary structure using nucleotide sequences.

  1. Overview of plant dosimetry in agricultural commodities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Khedkar, Kalpana C.

    2014-01-01

    Extensive research carried out for more than three decades at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Bombay and other laboratories in India had conclusively established application of radiation processing of food for catering to the domestic and export market. A major milestone of food irradiation was reached in the country when Board of Radiation and Isotope Technology, a constituent unit of Department of Atomic Energy had set up 'SPICE PLANT' at Vashi, Navi Mumbai in the year 2000. It was first demonstration plant for radiation processing of spices for hygienisation purpose. For expanding scope of applications in agricultural sector, the next step in this direction was taken by BARC for setting up 'KRUSHAK' plant at Lasalgaon, Nashik. This was the first plant for low dose application of gamma radiation in agricultural commodities i.e. for sprout inhibition in onion and potatoes

  2. The Role of Vocational Education in Agriculture--Economic Efficiency.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McMillion, Martin B.

    1982-01-01

    Vocational agriculture is education for work. By meeting the needs of the economy and the job market, it can meet the needs of the individual. Although human resource development is important, vocational agriculture should focus on job-relevant competencies and cost effectiveness. (SK)

  3. AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY ASSESSMENT IN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

    OpenAIRE

    Serrao, Amilcar

    2001-01-01

    This research work examines levels and trends in global agricultural productivity in fifteen European Union countries and four Eastern European countries that have already applied for European Union membership. The study makes use of data collected from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and covers the period 1980-1998. An approach based on Data Envelopment Analysis is used to provide information on the peers of the (inefficient) i-th country and to derive the Malmqui...

  4. Management of Agricultural Enterprise Cash Flows

    OpenAIRE

    Tamara Kucherenko; Inna Tkachuk

    2014-01-01

    Cash is the only kind of company resource which can be transformed directly and with minimum time lag into any other kind of resources, their movement servicing all management operational processes. The article is covers the development of cash management algorithm in agricultural enterprise. The author has worked out the algorithm for determining the efficiency of cash management in agricultural enterprise. As the basis of the algorithm the income approach and discounted cash flow method has...

  5. Pollinator interactions with yellow starthistle (Centaurea solstitialis across urban, agricultural, and natural landscapes.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Misha Leong

    Full Text Available Pollinator-plant relationships are found to be particularly vulnerable to land use change. Yet despite extensive research in agricultural and natural systems, less attention has focused on these interactions in neighboring urban areas and its impact on pollination services. We investigated pollinator-plant interactions in a peri-urban landscape on the outskirts of the San Francisco Bay Area, California, where urban, agricultural, and natural land use types interface. We made standardized observations of floral visitation and measured seed set of yellow starthistle (Centaurea solstitialis, a common grassland invasive, to test the hypotheses that increasing urbanization decreases 1 rates of bee visitation, 2 viable seed set, and 3 the efficiency of pollination (relationship between bee visitation and seed set. We unexpectedly found that bee visitation was highest in urban and agricultural land use contexts, but in contrast, seed set rates in these human-altered landscapes were lower than in natural sites. An explanation for the discrepancy between floral visitation and seed set is that higher plant diversity in urban and agricultural areas, as a result of more introduced species, decreases pollinator efficiency. If these patterns are consistent across other plant species, the novel plant communities created in these managed landscapes and the generalist bee species that are favored by human-altered environments will reduce pollination services.

  6. Microbial quality of agricultural water in Central Florida

    OpenAIRE

    Topalcengiz, Zeynal; Strawn, Laura K.; Danyluk, Michelle D.

    2017-01-01

    The microbial quality of water that comes into the edible portion of produce is believed to directly relate to the safety of produce, and metrics describing indicator organisms are commonly used to ensure safety. The US FDA Produce Safety Rule (PSR) sets very specific microbiological water quality metrics for agricultural water that contacts the harvestable portion of produce. Validation of these metrics for agricultural water is essential for produce safety. Water samples (500 mL) from six a...

  7. Abolition of set-aside schemes and its impact on habitat connectivity in Denmark from 2007 - 2008

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Levin, Gregor

    In Denmark, agriculture occupies 28,000 km² or 65% of the land. As a consequence, habitats for wild species are mainly characterized by small patches, surrounded by intensive agriculture. Due to extensive agricultural management, set-aside land can spatially connect habitats and thus positively...... affect habitat connectivity, which is of importance to the survival of wild species. In 2008 set-aside schemes were abolished, leading to a considerable re-cultivation of former set-aside land and consequently to a decline in the area of set-aside land from 6% of all agricultural land in 2007 to 3......% in 2008. The main argument against regulations of the re-cultivation of set-aside land with the aim to minimize declines in habitat-connectivity was that re-cultivation would primarily occur on highly productive land at a long distance from habitats, while set-aside land located on marginal land, close...

  8. Heat-related illness in Washington State agriculture and forestry sectors.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spector, June T; Krenz, Jennifer; Rauser, Edmund; Bonauto, David K

    2014-08-01

    We sought to describe heat-related illness (HRI) in agriculture and forestry workers in Washington State. Demographic and clinical Washington State Fund workers' compensation agriculture and forestry HRI claims data (1995-2009) and Washington Agriculture Heat Rule citations (2009-2012) were accessed and described. Maximum daily temperature (Tmax) and Heat Index (HImax) were estimated by claim date and location using AgWeatherNet's weather station network. There were 84 Washington State Fund agriculture and forestry HRI claims and 60 Heat Rule citations during the study period. HRI claims and citations were most common in crop production and support subsectors. The mean Tmax (HImax) was 95°F (99°F) for outdoor HRI claims. Potential HRI risk factors and HRI-related injuries were documented for some claims. Agriculture and forestry HRI cases are characterized by potential work-related, environmental, and personal risk factors. Further work is needed to elucidate the relationship between heat exposure and occupational injuries. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  9. Linked Data for Fighting Global Hunger:Experiences in setting standards for Agricultural Information Management

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baker, Thomas; Keizer, Johannes

    FAO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, has the global goal to defeat hunger and eliminate poverty. One of its core functions is the generation, dissemination and application of information and knowledge. Since 2000, the Agricultural InformationManagement Standards (AIMS) activity in FAO's Knowledge Exchange and Capacity Building Division has promoted the use of Semantic Web standards to improve information sharing within a global network of research institutes and related partner organizations. The strategy emphasizes the use of simple descriptive metadata, thesauri, and ontologies for integrating access to information from a wide range of sources for both scientific and non-expert audiences. An early adopter of Semantic Web technology, the AIMS strategy is evolving to help information providers in nineteen language areas use modern Linked Data methods to improve the quality of life in developing rural areas, home to seventy percent of the world's poor and hungry people.

  10. Agricultural experts’ attitude towards precision agriculture: Evidence from Guilan Agricultural Organization, Northern Iran

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohammad Sadegh Allahyari

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available Identifying factors that influence the attitudes of agricultural experts regarding precision agriculture plays an important role in developing, promoting and establishing precision agriculture. The aim of this study was to identify factors affecting the attitudes of agricultural experts regarding the implementation of precision agriculture. A descriptive research design was employed as the research method. A research-made questionnaire was used to examine the agricultural experts’ attitude toward precision agriculture. Internal consistency was demonstrated with a coefficient alpha of 0.87, and the content and face validity of the instrument was confirmed by a panel of experts. The results show that technical, economic and accessibility factors accounted for 55% of the changes in attitudes towards precision agriculture. The findings revealed that there were no significant differences between participants in terms of gender, field of study, extension education, age, experience, organizational position and attitudes, while education levels had a significant effect on the respondent’s attitudes.

  11. Automated work packages architecture: An initial set of human factors and instrumentation and controls requirements

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Agarwal, Vivek [Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States); Oxstrand, Johanna H. [Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States); Le Blanc, Katya L. [Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)

    2014-09-01

    The work management process in current fleets of national nuclear power plants is so highly dependent on large technical staffs and quality of work instruction, i.e., paper-based, that this puts nuclear energy at somewhat of a long-term economic disadvantage and increase the possibility of human errors. Technologies like mobile portable devices and computer-based procedures can play a key role in improving the plant work management process, thereby increasing productivity and decreasing cost. Automated work packages are a fundamentally an enabling technology for improving worker productivity and human performance in nuclear power plants work activities because virtually every plant work activity is accomplished using some form of a work package. As part of this year’s research effort, automated work packages architecture is identified and an initial set of requirements identified, that are essential and necessary for implementation of automated work packages in nuclear power plants.

  12. An application to model traffic intensity of agricultural machinery at field scale

    Science.gov (United States)

    Augustin, Katja; Kuhwald, Michael; Duttmann, Rainer

    2017-04-01

    Several soil-pressure-models deal with the impact of agricultural machines on soils. In many cases, these models were used for single spots and consider a static machine configuration. Therefore, a statement about the spatial distribution of soil compaction risk for entire working processes is limited. The aim of the study is the development of an application for the spatial modelling of traffic lanes from agricultural vehicles including wheel load, ground pressure and wheel passages at the field scale. The application is based on Open Source software, application and data formats, using python programming language. Minimum input parameters are GPS-positions, vehicles and tires (producer and model) and the tire inflation pressure. Five working processes were distinguished: soil tillage, manuring, plant protection, sowing and harvest. Currently, two different models (Diserens 2009, Rücknagel et al. 2015) were implemented to calculate the soil pressure. The application was tested at a study site in Lower Saxony, Germany. Since 2015, field traffic were recorded by RTK-GPS and used machine set ups were noted. Using these input information the traffic lanes, wheel load and soil pressure were calculated for all working processes. For instance, the maize harvest in 2016 with a crop chopper and one transport vehicle crossed about 55 % of the total field area. At some places the machines rolled over up to 46 times. Approximately 35 % of the total area was affected by wheel loads over 7 tons and soil pressures between 163 and 193 kPa. With the information about the spatial distribution of wheel passages, wheel load and soil pressure it is possible to identify hot spots of intensive field traffic. Additionally, the use of the application enables the analysis of soil compaction risk induced by agricultural machines for long- and short-term periods.

  13. Objectively Measured Total and Occupational Sedentary Time in Three Work Settings

    Science.gov (United States)

    van Dommelen, Paula; Coffeng, Jennifer K.; van der Ploeg, Hidde P.; van der Beek, Allard J.; Boot, Cécile R. L.; Hendriksen, Ingrid J. M.

    2016-01-01

    Background Sedentary behaviour increases the risk for morbidity. Our primary aim is to determine the proportion and factors associated with objectively measured total and occupational sedentary time in three work settings. Secondary aim is to study the proportion of physical activity and prolonged sedentary bouts. Methods Data were obtained using ActiGraph accelerometers from employees of: 1) a financial service provider (n = 49 men, 31 women), 2) two research institutes (n = 30 men, 57 women), and 3) a construction company (n = 38 men). Total (over the whole day) and occupational sedentary time, physical activity and prolonged sedentary bouts (lasting ≥30 minutes) were calculated by work setting. Linear regression analyses were performed to examine general, health and work-related factors associated with sedentary time. Results The employees of the financial service provider and the research institutes spent 76–80% of their occupational time in sedentary behaviour, 18–20% in light intensity physical activity and 3–5% in moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity. Occupational time in prolonged sedentary bouts was 27–30%. Total time was less sedentary (64–70%), and had more light intensity physical activity (26–33%). The employees of the construction company spent 44% of their occupational time in sedentary behaviour, 49% in light, and 7% in moderate intensity physical activity, and spent 7% in sedentary bouts. Total time spent in sedentary behavior was 56%, 40% in light, and 4% in moderate intensity physical behaviour, and 12% in sedentary bouts. For women, low to intermediate education was the only factor that was negatively associated with occupational sedentary time. Conclusions Sedentary behaviour is high among white-collar employees, especially in highly educated women. A relatively small proportion of sedentary time was accrued in sedentary bouts. It is recommended that worksite health promotion efforts should focus on reducing sedentary

  14. Research and Demonstration of‘Double-chain’Eco-agricultural Model Standardization and Industrialization

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    ZHANG Jia-hong

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available According to agricultural resource endowment of Jiangsu Province, this paper created kinds of double-chain eco-agricultural model and integrated supporting system based on 'waterfowl, marine lives, aquatic vegetable and paddy rice', 'special food and economic crops with livestock’and‘special food and economic crops with livestock and marine lives’, which were suitable for extension and application in Jiangsu Province. Besides, it set 12 provincial standards and established preliminary technical standard system of‘double-chain’eco-agricultural model. In addition, it explored that‘the leading agricultural enterprises (agricultural co-operatives or family farms+demonstration zones+farmer households’was adopted as operating mechanism of industrialization of eco-agricultural model, which pushed forward rapid development of standardization and industrialization of‘double-chain’eco-agricultural model.

  15. Work-family conflict among athletic trainers in the secondary school setting.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pitney, William A; Mazerolle, Stephanie M; Pagnotta, Kelly D

    2011-01-01

    Work-family conflict (WFC) negatively affects a professional's ability to function at work or home. To examine perceptions of and contributing factors to WFC among secondary school athletic trainers. Sequential explanatory mixed-methods study. Secondary school. From a random sample of 1325 individuals selected from the National Athletic Trainers' Association Member Services database, 415 individuals (203 women, 212 men; age = 36.8 ± 9.3 years) provided usable online survey data. Fourteen individuals participated in follow-up interviews. Online WFC questionnaire followed by in-depth phone interviews. Descriptive statistics were obtained to examine perceived WFC. Pearson product moment correlations were calculated to examine the relationship between work hours, total athletic training staff, and number of children and WFC score. We performed analysis of variance to examine differences between the independent variables of sex and control over work schedule and the dependent variable of WFC score. The a priori α was set at P ≤ .05. Qualitative data were analyzed using inductive content analysis. Multiple-analyst triangulation and member checks established trustworthiness of the qualitative data. Mean WFC scores were 23.97 ± 7.78 for scale 1 (family defined as having a partner or spouse with or without children) and 23.17 ± 7.69 for scale 2 (family defined as individuals, including parents, siblings, grandparents, and any other close relatives, involved in one's life), indicating moderate perceived WFC. A significant relationship was found between the average hours of work per week and WFC scores: those with less scheduling control experienced more WFC. Two dimensions emerged from the qualitative methods that relate to how WFC is mitigated in the secondary school environment: (1) organizational-having colleagues and administration that understood the role demands and allowed for modifications in schedule and personal time and (2) personal-taking time for oneself

  16. Agricultural problems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bickerton, George E.

    1997-01-01

    Although there were not reasons to deplore against major activity release from any of the 110 industrial reactors authorized to operate in US, the nuclear incident that occurred at the Three Mile Island Plant in 1979 urged the public conscience toward the necessity of readiness to cope with events of this type. The personnel of the Emergency Planning Office functioning in the frame of US Department of Agriculture has already participated in around 600 intervention drillings on a federal, local or state scale to plan, test or asses radiological emergency plans or to intervene locally. These exercises allowed acquiring a significant experience in elaborating emergency plans, planning the drillings, working out scenarios and evaluation of the potential impact of accidents from the agricultural point of view. We have also taken part in different international drillings among which the most recent are INEX 1 and RADEX 94. We have found on these occasions that the agricultural problems are essential preoccupations in most of the cases no matter if the context is international, national, local or of state level. The paper poses problems specifically related to milk, fruits and vegetables, soils, meat and meat products. Finally the paper discusses issues like drilling planning, alarm and notification, sampling strategy, access authorizations for farmers, removing of contamination wastes. A number of social, political and economical relating problems are also mentioned

  17. Stress coping strategies among agricultural extension agents in Oyo ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Stress coping strategies among agricultural extension agents in Oyo State, Nigeria. ... Journal Home > Vol 20, No 1 (2016) >. Log in or ... Employees should have control over work flow to reduce work stress and increase work efficiency.

  18. The effectiveness of rehabilitation on pain-free farming in agriculture workers with low back pain in India.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ganesh, Shankar; Chhabra, Deepak; Kumari, Nitika

    2016-10-17

    Studies have shown that farming is associated with many agricultural workers experiencing low back pain (LBP). The rehabilitation of these workers should facilitate their functioning, activities and level of participation in an adequate way. The objectives of this study were to identify the health components associated with LBP and to evaluate the effectiveness of the interventions in returning agricultural workers with LBP to their vocation using the International Classification of Function (ICF) -based tools. Thirty-one full time agricultural workers from 3 different Indian states were prospectively assessed using the ICF core set for LBP. ICF core sets permitted analysis of limitations of function from both the participant and rehabilitation team's perspectives. Each ICF category was rated using an ICF qualifier. The components identified were linked to the ICF categorical profile and assessment sheet. The clinicians identified the global, service program and cycle goals based on ICF. The participants' functioning was followed over a 4-month period. After intervention, the participants were able to undergo their routine activities without increases in pain. However, on returning to active farming, participants noted few improvements in the components d410 (changing basic body position), d415 (maintaining body position), d430 (lifting and carrying objects), d465 (moving around using equipment), d850 (remunerative employment) and d859 (work and employment, other specified and unspecified). The results of the study conclude that the current interventions for LBP are not effective in returning agriculture workers with LBP in India to pain-free farming. There is an urgent need to individualize the health needs of agriculture workers.

  19. Agriculture

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2002-01-01

    The report entitled Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation : A Canadian Perspective, presents a summary of research regarding the impacts of climate change on key sectors over the past five years as it relates to Canada. This chapter on agriculture describes how climate change will affect primary agriculture production in Canada with particular focus on potential adaptation options, and vulnerability of agriculture at the farm level. Agriculture is a vital part of the Canadian economy, although only 7 per cent of Canada's land mass is used for agricultural purposes due to the limitations of climate and soils. Most parts of Canada are expected to experience warmer conditions, longer frost-free seasons and increased evapotranspiration. The impacts of these changes on agriculture will vary depending on precipitation changes, soil conditions, and land use. Northern regions may benefit from longer farming seasons, but poor soil conditions will limit the northward expansion of agricultural crops. Some of the negative impacts associated with climate change on agriculture include increased droughts, changes in pest and pathogen outbreaks, and moisture stress. In general, it is expected that the positive and negative impacts of climate change would offset each other. 74 refs., 2 tabs., 1 fig

  20. Green Agriculture - features and agricultural policy measures for the transition to a sustainable agriculture

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cornelia Nistor

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Agriculture is one of the most important economic activities in each country or area, as it is in close correlation with all other the other economic activities, in a whole which must be structured so as to achieve a more efficient planning and organization of the territory. The practice of a traditional agriculture, based on industrialization, affects the natural environment through emissions of pollutants, waste and deforestation which together affects biodiversity. Green Agriculture suppose to empower managers to widespread the use of fertilizers, to improve the crop rotation, to realize a more efficient water consumption, to improve the storage methods and the supply chain of products. Agricultural policies are closely interrelated with environmental policies as agricultural activities have a considerable influence on the environment. The efficiency of agricultural policies is reflected in monetary transfers between agriculture and other economic sectors, in the costs due to the reallocation of the resources between different agricultural and non-agricultural activities and in the realized gains. Currently there is a constant concern of the governments for the transition to a green agriculture, and most countries recognize the importance of achieving sustainable economic development.

  1. AN ANALYSIS OF FUNDING DECISIONS FOR NICHE AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS

    OpenAIRE

    HOWARD VAN AUKEN; SHAWN CARRAHER

    2012-01-01

    This paper examines the flow of funds from providers of capital to niche agricultural users of capital. Various programs through the US government, state/local economic development and private agencies work to improve the flow of capital to the niche agricultural sector. However, despite the expansion of programs aimed at providing financial resources to the agricultural sector, many sectors remain poorly served. Previous studies have suggested that agencies need to facilitate the flow of cap...

  2. Introduction to the JEEG Agricultural Geophysics Special Issue

    Science.gov (United States)

    Allred, Barry J.; Smith, Bruce D.

    2010-01-01

    Near-surface geophysical methods have become increasingly important tools in applied agricultural practices and studies. The great advantage of geophysical methods is their potential rapidity, low cost, and spatial continuity when compared to more traditional methods of assessing agricultural land, such as sample collection and laboratory analysis. Agricultural geophysics investigations commonly focus on obtaining information within the soil profile, which generally does not extend much beyond 2 meters beneath the ground surface. Although the depth of interest oftentimes is rather shallow, the area covered by an agricultural geophysics survey can vary widely in scale, from experimental plots (10 s to 100 s of square meters), to farm fields (10 s to 100 s of hectares), up to the size of watersheds (10 s to 100 s of square kilometers). To date, three predominant methods—resistivity, electromagnetic induction (EMI), and ground-penetrating radar (GPR)—have been used to obtain surface-based geophysical measurements within agricultural settings. However, a recent conference on agricultural geophysics (Bouyoucos Conference on Agricultural Geophysics, September 8–10, 2009, Albuquerque, New Mexico; www.ag-geophysics.org) illustrated that other geophysical methods are being applied or developed. These include airborne electromagnetic induction, magnetometry, seismic, and self-potential methods. Agricultural geophysical studies are also being linked to ground water studies that utilize deeper penetrating geophysical methods than normally used.

  3. 76 FR 69114 - Agricultural Career and Employment Grants Program

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-11-08

    ... Agricultural Career and Employment Grants Program AGENCY: Office of Advocacy and Outreach, Departmental... USDA. OAO has designated the program the Agricultural Career and Employment (ACE) Grants Program and it... frequently report it is difficult to locate employment or obtain sufficient hours of work to earn a living...

  4. The Female Sex Work Industry in a District of India in the Context of HIV Prevention.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buzdugan, Raluca; Halli, Shiva S; Hiremath, Jyoti M; Jayanna, Krishnamurthy; Raghavendra, T; Moses, Stephen; Blanchard, James; Scambler, Graham; Cowan, Frances

    2012-01-01

    HIV prevalence in India remains high among female sex workers. This paper presents the main findings of a qualitative study of the modes of operation of female sex work in Belgaum district, Karnataka, India, incorporating fifty interviews with sex workers. Thirteen sex work settings (distinguished by sex workers' main places of solicitation and sex) are identified. In addition to previously documented brothel, lodge, street, dhaba (highway restaurant), and highway-based sex workers, under-researched or newly emerging sex worker categories are identified, including phone-based sex workers, parlour girls, and agricultural workers. Women working in brothels, lodges, dhabas, and on highways describe factors that put them at high HIV risk. Of these, dhaba and highway-based sex workers are poorly covered by existing interventions. The paper examines the HIV-related vulnerability factors specific to each sex work setting. The modes of operation and HIV-vulnerabilities of sex work settings identified in this paper have important implications for the local programme.

  5. The Female Sex Work Industry in a District of India in the Context of HIV Prevention

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Raluca Buzdugan

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available HIV prevalence in India remains high among female sex workers. This paper presents the main findings of a qualitative study of the modes of operation of female sex work in Belgaum district, Karnataka, India, incorporating fifty interviews with sex workers. Thirteen sex work settings (distinguished by sex workers' main places of solicitation and sex are identified. In addition to previously documented brothel, lodge, street, dhaba (highway restaurant, and highway-based sex workers, under-researched or newly emerging sex worker categories are identified, including phone-based sex workers, parlour girls, and agricultural workers. Women working in brothels, lodges, dhabas, and on highways describe factors that put them at high HIV risk. Of these, dhaba and highway-based sex workers are poorly covered by existing interventions. The paper examines the HIV-related vulnerability factors specific to each sex work setting. The modes of operation and HIV-vulnerabilities of sex work settings identified in this paper have important implications for the local programme.

  6. Methods for geographical mapping of agricultural activities and the related environmental impact

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dalgaard, Tommy; Jensen, Jørgen Dejgaard

    2011-01-01

    This study presents a three-step methodology to generate, map and simulate indicators of agricultural activity for use in landscape-scale analyses. Step one is the farm data set up combining digital agricultural registers and national statistics. Step two is the geographical mapping based discrete...

  7. 75 FR 54594 - Effectiveness of Licensing Procedures for Agricultural Commodities to Cuba

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-09-08

    ...] Effectiveness of Licensing Procedures for Agricultural Commodities to Cuba AGENCY: Bureau of Industry and... Administration Regulations for the export of agricultural commodities to Cuba. BIS will include a description of...), to Cuba. Requirements and procedures associated with such authorization are set forth in section 740...

  8. Cellphones are improving agriculture in Kenya | IDRC - International ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    2010-10-27

    Oct 27, 2010 ... DrumNet offers an essential tool to farmers — information. ... Using GSM-enabled (Global System for Mobile Communications) cellphone ... set of services also include credit linked to agricultural extension and marketing.

  9. The Secrets of Koberwitz: The Diffusion of Rudolf Steiner’s Agriculture Course and the Founding of Biodynamic Agriculture

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    John Paull

    2011-07-01

    Full Text Available Rudolf Steiner presented his Agriculture Course to a group of 111, farmers and others, at Koberwitz (Kobierzyce, Poland in 1924. Steiner spoke of an agriculture to ‘heal the earth’ and he laid the philosophical and practical underpinnings for such a differentiated agriculture. Biodynamic agriculture is now practiced internationally as a specialist form of organic agriculture. The path from proposal to experimentation, to formalization, to implementation and promulgation played out over a decade and a half following the Course and in the absence of its progenitor. Archival material pertaining to the dissemination of the early printed editions of ‘The Agriculture Course’ reveals that within six years of the Course there was a team of more than 400 individuals of the Agricultural Experimental Circle (AEC, each signed a confidentiality agreement, and located throughout continental Europe, and also in Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and USA. Membership expanded to over 1000 AEC members (with a lower bound estimate of 1144 members who were committed to working collectively towards an evidence based, new and alternative agriculture, ‘for all farmers’, which was to be developed into a ‘suitable for publication’ form. That publication milestone was realized in 1938 with the release of Ehrenfried Pfeiffer’s ‘Bio-Dynamic Farming and Gardening’ which was published simultaneously in at least five languages: Dutch, English, French, German and Italian

  10. Use of internet and E-Resources by Agricultural students in a ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The study examined the use of internet and e- resources by Agricultural students in a Nigerian university. The total population of students was 1, 200. The population sample for this study was 200 sets of questionnaire were administered to students between 200 and 500 leves in the departments of Agricultural Economics ...

  11. Agriculture in an industrial framework

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Edgar Thomas

    1966-12-01

    Full Text Available The present shape of agriculture in every country is the result of a complex of past economic, social and political factors. These factors are continuously under pressure from new forces. Today, for better or for worse, the pursuit of economic growth has become the dominant force the world over. In order to achieve and sustain a more rapid rate of growth two things are necessary. The first is to improve productivity within each activity by the greater application of capital, by better technology, by better management and by better organisation. The second is to aim at the optimum allocation of resources between activities by moving resources from less to more productive uses. Pursuing these two paths towards faster growth is releasing two sets of forces which are exerting a radical impact on both the size and the pattern of agriculture. This paper deals with this impact on agriculture in contemporary Britain a highly industrial and a preponderantly urban nation committed to the experiment of running a hybrid economy based on the two pillars of private enterprise and public control.

  12. 77 FR 55183 - Effectiveness of Licensing Procedures for Agricultural Commodities to Cuba

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-09-07

    ...] Effectiveness of Licensing Procedures for Agricultural Commodities to Cuba AGENCY: Bureau of Industry and... Administration Regulations for the export of agricultural commodities to Cuba. BIS will include a description of...), to Cuba. Requirements and procedures associated with such authorization are set forth in Sec. 740.18...

  13. Barriers to Business Model Innovation in Swedish Agriculture

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Olof Sivertsson

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available Swedish agricultural companies, especially small farms, are struggling to be profitable in difficult economic times. It is a challenge for Swedish farmers to compete with imported products on prices. The agricultural industry, however, supports the view that through business model innovation, farms can increase their competitive advantage. This paper identifies and describes some of the barriers Swedish small farms encounter when they consider business model innovation. A qualitative approach is used in the study. Agriculture business consultants were interviewed. In a focus group led by the researchers, farmers discussed business model innovation, including the exogenous and endogenous barriers to such innovation. The paper concludes many barriers exist when farmers consider innovation of agricultural business models. Some barriers are caused by human factors, such as individuals’ attitudes, histories, and traditions. Other barriers are more contextual in nature and relate to a particular industry or company setting. Still other barriers, such as government regulations, value chain position, and weather, are more abstract. All barriers, however, merit attention when Swedish agricultural companies develop new business models.

  14. Occupational Accidents with Agricultural Machinery in Austria.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kogler, Robert; Quendler, Elisabeth; Boxberger, Josef

    2016-01-01

    The number of recognized accidents with fatalities during agricultural and forestry work, despite better technology and coordinated prevention and trainings, is still very high in Austria. The accident scenarios in which people are injured are very different on farms. The common causes of accidents in agriculture and forestry are the loss of control of machine, means of transport or handling equipment, hand-held tool, and object or animal, followed by slipping, stumbling and falling, breakage, bursting, splitting, slipping, fall, and collapse of material agent. In the literature, a number of studies of general (machine- and animal-related accidents) and specific (machine-related accidents) agricultural and forestry accident situations can be found that refer to different databases. From the database Data of the Austrian Workers Compensation Board (AUVA) about occupational accidents with different agricultural machinery over the period 2008-2010 in Austria, main characteristics of the accident, the victim, and the employer as well as variables on causes and circumstances by frequency and contexts of parameters were statistically analyzed by employing the chi-square test and odds ratio. The aim of the study was to determine the information content and quality of the European Statistics on Accidents at Work (ESAW) variables to evaluate safety gaps and risks as well as the accidental man-machine interaction.

  15. Transport and agricultural productivity: A cross-national analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sike Liu

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available The transportation infrastructure plays a significant role in the development of agriculture. In this study we examine the relationship between transport and agricultural performance by employing the World Bank’s roads infrastructure indicators. Based on a cross-country sample, a classic method is employed to test the hypothesis that better transport fosters agricultural productivity. The empirical results of the method support the hypothesis. As for this method, the estimation results of the widely-used inter-country aggregate agricultural production function describe that a country with better transport can produce more agricultural outputs given the same amounts of agricultural inputs and the same education level. Our empirical work lends support to the claim of Gollin and Rogerson (2010 [19] that transport is a basic factor explaining the poor economic performance of many developing countries, apart from physical and education investments, more emphasis should be placed on improving the transport infrastructure of these countries.

  16. The agricultural policy of Serbia and common agricultural policy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stanković Milica

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available The agricultural sector has a relatively high importance in the economic structure of Serbia. The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP, Common Agricultural Policy is one of the main policies of the European Union. It is very important to point out the fundamental principles and objectives of the Common Agricultural Policy. Harmonization of the national agricultural policy of Serbia with the Common Agricultural Policy and acceptance of its mechanisms is crucial for the development of the agricultural sector as a whole.

  17. Agricultural Health and Safety Survey in Friuli Venezia Giulia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sirio Rossano Secondo Cividino

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available The work in the agricultural sector has taken on a fundamental role in the last decades, due to the still too high rate of fatal injuries, workplace accidents, and dangerous occurrences reported each year. The average old age of agricultural machinery is one of the main issues at stake in Italy. Numerous safety problems stem from that; therefore, two surveys were conducted in two different periods, on current levels of work safety in agriculture in relation to agricultural machinery’s age and efficiency, and to show the levels of actual implementation of the Italian legislation on safety and health at work in the agricultural sector. The surveys were carried out, considering a sample of 161 farms located in the region Friuli Venezia Giulia (North-East of Italy. The research highlights the most significant difficulties the sample of farms considered have in enforcing the law. One hand, sanitary surveillance and workers’ information and training represent the main deficiencies and weakest points in family farms. Moreover, family farms do not generally provide the proper documentation concerning health and safety at workplaces, when they award the contract to other companies. On the other hand, lack of maintenance program for machinery and equipment, and of emergency plans and participation of workers’ health and safety representative, are the most common issues in farms with employees. Several difficulties are also evident in planning workers’ training programs. Furthermore, the company physician’s task is often limited to medical controls, so that he is not involved in risk assessment and training. Interviews in heterogeneous samples of farms have shown meaningful outcomes, which have subsequently been used to implement new databases and guidelines for Health and Safety Experts and courses in the field of Work Safety in agriculture. In conclusion, although the legislation making training courses for tractor operators and tractor

  18. Sustainable agricultural water management across climates

    Science.gov (United States)

    DeVincentis, A.

    2016-12-01

    Fresh water scarcity is a global problem with local solutions. Agriculture is one of many human systems threatened by water deficits, and faces unique supply, demand, quality, and management challenges as the global climate changes and population grows. Sustainable agricultural water management is paramount to protecting global economies and ecosystems, but requires different approaches based on environmental conditions, social structures, and resource availability. This research compares water used by conservation agriculture in temperate and tropical agroecosystems through data collected from operations growing strawberries, grapes, tomatoes, and pistachios in California and corn and soybeans in Colombia. The highly manipulated hydrologic regime in California has depleted water resources and incited various adaptive management strategies, varying based on crop type and location throughout the state. Operations have to use less water more efficiently, and sometimes that means fallowing land in select groundwater basins. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the largely untouched landscape in the eastern plains of Colombia are rapidly being converted into commercial agricultural operations, with a unique opportunity to manage and plan for agricultural development with sustainability in mind. Although influenced by entirely different climates and economies, there are some similarities in agricultural water management strategies that could be applicable worldwide. Cover crops are a successful management strategy for both agricultural regimes, and moving forward it appears that farmers who work in coordination with their neighbors to plan for optimal production will be most successful in both locations. This research points to the required coordination of agricultural extension services as a critical component to sustainable water use, successful economies, and protected environments.

  19. Assessing Strategies to Manage Work and Life Balance of Athletic Trainers Working in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Setting

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mazerolle, Stephanie M.; Pitney, William A.; Casa, Douglas J.; Pagnotta, Kelly D.

    2011-01-01

    Abstract Context: Certified athletic trainers (ATs) working at the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I level experience challenges balancing their professional and personal lives. However, an understanding of the strategies ATs use to promote a balance between their professional and personal lives is lacking. Objective: To identify the strategies ATs employed in the Division I setting use to establish a balance between their professional and personal lives. Design: Qualitative investigation using inductive content analysis. Setting: Athletic trainers employed at Division I schools from 5 National Athletic Trainers' Association districts. Patients or Other Participants: A total of 28 (15 women, 13 men) ATs aged 35 ± 9 years volunteered for the study. Data Collection and Analysis: Asynchronous electronic interviews with follow-up phone interviews. Data were analyzed using inductive content analysis. Peer review, member checking, and data-source triangulation were conducted to establish trustworthiness. Results: Three higher-order themes emerged from the analysis. The initial theme, antecedents of work–family conflict, focused on the demands of the profession, flexibility of work schedules, and staffing patterns as contributing to work–life conflict for this group of ATs. The other 2 emergent higher-order themes, professional factors and personal factors, describe the components of a balanced lifestyle. The second-order theme of constructing the professional factors included both organizational policies and individual strategies, whereas the second-order theme of personal factors was separation of work and life and a supportive personal network. Conclusions: Long work hours, lack of control over work schedules, and unbalanced athlete-to-AT ratios can facilitate conflicts. However, as demonstrated by our results, several organizational and personal strategies can be helpful in creating a balanced lifestyle. PMID:21391805

  20. Integrating climate change into agricultural research for development in Africa

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Chambwera, Muyeye; Anderson, Simon

    2011-09-15

    African agriculture is already struggling to meet increasing demand for food. Climate change, which will alter agroecological conditions and looks set to arrest and decrease agricultural yields on the continent, will make it even harder to achieve food security. Boosting agricultural productivity in Africa, especially in the face of climate change, cannot be achieved without the benefits of cutting edge science. Advances in technology development and transfer, capacity building and policy research must be harnessed by developing and disseminating relevant strategies and technologies, and improving policy environments. The European Initiative for Agricultural Research for Development (EIARD), which facilitates and coordinates European policy and support for agricultural research for development, must integrate climate change into its activities and ensure that agricultural research for development and climate change adaptation are not disjointed. This demands a more strategic and coordinated approach from the initiative — one that reflects African realities, responds to African priorities for adaptation and development, and makes the best use of limited resources.

  1. Association between shift work and being overweight or obese among health care workers in a clinical setting in Medellin, Colombia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gomez-Parra, Myrna; Romero-Arrieta, Lydis; Vasquez-Trespalacios, Elsa Maria; Palacio-Jaramillo, Veronica; Valencia-Martinez, Andrea

    2016-11-22

    Shift work is common in health care settings and has been hypothesized as a risk factor for being overweight or obese. We examined the relation between shift work and being overweight or obese, adjusting for stress and lifestyle habits in Colombian health care workers. The aim of this study was to assess the association between shift work and being overweight/obese in employees of a health care setting in Medellin, Colombia. This cross-sectional study was carried out among 200 workers in a health care setting. Participants completed a demographic, occupational, work-related stress and life style questionnaire. Their Body Mass Index (BMI) and waist to hip ratio were also measured. The study sample consisted of 160 (80%) females and 40 (20%) males. Mean age was 35.1±9.1 years and mean BMI was 25±3.9. After adjusting for potential confounders, multivariate logistic regression revealed no statistically significant association between being overweight, being obese or waist to hip ratio and shift work; 95% CI OR: 1.08 (0.62-1.89), 1.33 (0.44-3.99) and 1.2 (0.8-1.9), respectively. Day workers were statistically more likely to smoke, work more hours, and have a higher educational level than shift workers. No significant associations between shift work and being overweight/obese were observed in health care workers in a Colombian setting. These findings need to be confirmed through longitudinal studies.

  2. Hamstring muscle length and lumbar lordosis in subjects with different lifestyle and work setting: comparison between individuals with and without chronic low back pain.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arab, Amir Massoud; Nourbakhsh, Mohammad Reza

    2014-01-01

    Shortened hamstring muscle length has been noted in persons with low back pain (LBP). Prolonged sitting postures, such as those adopted during different work settings and sedentary lifestyle has been associated with hamstring shortness and LBP. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of lifestyle and work setting on hamstring length and lumbar lordosis in subjects with and without LBP and to identify the relationship between hamstring muscles length and lumbar lordosis in individuals with different lifestyle and work setting. A total of 508 subjects between the ages of 20 and 65 were selected. Subjects were categorized into two groups of individuals with and without LBP. A questionnaire was used to obtain information about the subjects' lifestyle and work setting. Hamstring muscle length and lumbar lordosis were measured in all subjects. The results showed no significant difference in the number of subjects with different work setting or lifestyle in individuals with and without LBP. Hamstring muscle length or lumbar lordosis was not affected by type of work setting and lifestyle. Our data showed significant difference in hamstring length and no significant difference in lumbar lordosis between subjects with and without LBP in all categories. Lumbar lordosis was not different between individuals with and without hamstring tightness in normal and LBP subjects with different work setting and lifestyle. The findings of this study did not support the assumption that work setting and sedentary lifestyle would lead to hamstring tightness in subjects with LBP. It seems that work setting and lifestyle was not a contributing factor for hamstring tightness in subjects with LBP.

  3. Data Cubes Integration in Spatial OLAP for Agricultural Commodities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Putri, A. I.; Sitanggang, I. S.

    2017-03-01

    Ministry of Agriculture Indonesia collects data of agricultural commodities in Indonesia in the annual period. Agricultural commodities data include food crops, horticulture, plantations, and livestock. The data are available in the spreadsheet format. This study developed data cubes for food crops, plantations, and livestock using the galaxy schema of data warehouse and integrated the data cubes into the SOLAP Horticulture using SpagoBI. SOLAP is useful for data analysis and data visualization. The application displays agricultural commodities data in form of crosstab and chart. This study also developed the location intelligence module that visualizes agricultural commodities data on the map. The system was tested using the black box approach. The result showed that main functions including roll up, drill down, slice, dice, and pivot work properly. This application is expected to enable users to easily obtain data summaries of agricultural commodities.

  4. CONSIDERATIONS ON THE MAIN FEATURES OF THE AGRICULTURAL POPULATION IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Agatha POPESCU

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available The paper aimed to analyze the EU-27 population by means of the following indicators: population structure by origin, age, gender, training level, income in member states, emphasizing Romania’s position among other countries. In the EU-27 there large differences regarding rural and agricultural population.The main trend is the reduction of agricultural population, but there are countries where it is increasing and states where it is declining. Despite at EU level 5 % of its 504 million inhabitants are working in agriculture, there are states with a higher percentage of agricultural workforce and also with a lower labor percentage. Rural population aging and decreasing number, migration to cities, relatively low training level, gender discrepances from a country to another, low income per annual working income mainly in the 12 countries which joined the EU in 2004 and 2007 below the EU average income are the major features of the EU-27 agricultural labor. Romania has the highest agricultural population working in small sized farms and the lowest income per farmer below Euro 2,000. The gap beween the EU and Romania could be diminished by training, high technologies, implementation of associative forms in agriculture destined to grow up productivity and competitiveness.

  5. Crop succession requirements in agricultural production planning

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Klein Haneveld, W.K.; Stegeman, A.

    2005-01-01

    A method is proposed to write crop succession requirements as linear constraints in an LP-based model for agricultural production planning. Crop succession information is given in the form of a set of inadmissible successions of crops. The decision variables represent the areas where a certain

  6. 7 CFR 3052.515 - Audit working papers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 15 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Audit working papers. 3052.515 Section 3052.515 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) OFFICE OF THE CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AUDITS OF STATES, LOCAL GOVERNMENTS, AND NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS Auditors § 3052...

  7. The effects of acute alcohol on psychomotor, set-shifting, and working memory performance in older men and women.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hoffman, Lauren A; Sklar, Alfredo L; Nixon, Sara Jo

    2015-05-01

    A limited number of publications have documented the effects of acute alcohol administration among older adults. Among these, only a few have investigated sex differences within this population. The current project examined the behavioral effects of acute low- and moderate-dose alcohol on 62 older (ages 55-70) male and female, healthy, light to moderate drinkers. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three dose conditions: placebo (peak breath alcohol concentration [BrAC] of 0 mg/dL), low (peak BrAC of 40 mg/dL), and moderate (peak BrAC of 65 mg/dL). Tasks assessed psychomotor, set-shifting, and working memory performance. Better set-shifting abilities were observed among women, whereas men demonstrated more efficient working memory, regardless of dose. The moderate-dose group did not significantly differ from the placebo group on any task. However, the low-dose group performed better than the moderate-dose group across measures of set shifting and working memory. Relative to the placebo group, the low-dose group exhibited better working memory, specifically for faces. Interestingly, there were no sex by dose interactions. These data suggest that, at least for our study's task demands, low and moderate doses of alcohol do not significantly hinder psychomotor, set-shifting, or working memory performance among older adults. In fact, low-dose alcohol may facilitate certain cognitive abilities. Furthermore, although sex differences in cognitive abilities were observed, these alcohol doses did not differentially affect men and women. Further investigation is necessary to better characterize the effects of sex and alcohol dose on cognition in older adults. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  8. Publishing Danish Agricultural Government Data as Semantic Web Data

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Andersen, Alex Bondo; Gur, Nurefsan; Hose, Katja

    Recent advances in Semantic Web technologies have led to a growing popularity of the (Linked) Open Data movement. Only recently, the Danish government has joined the movement and published several data sets – formerly only accessible for a fee – as Open Data in various formats, such as CSV and text...... files. These raw data sets are difficult to process automatically and combine with other data sources on the Web. Hence, our goal is to convert such data into RDF and make it available to a broader range of users and applications as Linked Open Data. In this paper, we discuss our experiences based...... on the particularly interesting use case of agricultural data as agriculture is one of the most important industries in Denmark. We describe the process of converting the data and discuss the particular problems that we encountered with respect to the considered data sets. We additionally evaluate our result based...

  9. Planning and costing agriculture's adaptation to climate change

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Chambwera, Muyeye; Downing, Tom; Venton, Courtenay Cabot; Dyszynski, Jillian; Crawford, Victoria; Butterfield, Ruth; Kaur, Nanki; Birch, Tom; Loga, Denise

    2011-11-15

    Changing climate will have adverse effects on food production, food distribution, infrastructure, land availability for agriculture, and livelihood assets and opportunities in rural and urban areas. Adapting food systems to both enhance food security for the poor and to prevent the future negative impacts of climate change will require attention to more than just agricultural production. Food security can only be ensured and enhanced through a range of interventions across different agricultural systems and along the associated value chains, from production to distribution and allocation. The current efforts to get agriculture into the global climate policy framework after the expiry of the Kyoto Protocol emphasises mitigation. Adaptation is an equally important objective in a world that cannot avoid climate change any more because of already accumulated greenhouse gases. In developing countries, adaptation is the primary concern due to their vulnerability to climate change and high dependence on weather-dependent agricultural systems. A complete response to climate change that integrates agriculture should therefore pursue both agricultural mitigation and adaptation. In order to plan for adaptation effectively, policy makers need reliable information from developing countries on the nature of adaptation, its costs and how these are related to ongoing efforts to develop the agriculture sector and food systems of developing countries. This study set out to inform climate policy development by analysing agricultural adaptation in developing countries using a combination of desk studies and country case studies to provide a framework, areas to focus on when planning agricultural adaptation and the likely costs. It followed key steps for bringing together global and local perspectives for the benefit of both global stakeholders and developing countries.

  10. Parallel effects of memory set activation and searchon timing and working memory capacity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Richard eSchweickert

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available Accurately estimating a time interval is required in everyday activities such as driving or cooking. Estimating time is relatively easy, provided a person attends to it. But a brief shift of attention to another task usually interferes with timing. Most processes carried out concurrently with timing interfere with it. Curiously, some do not. Literature on a few processes suggests a general proposition, the Timing and Complex-Span Hypothesis: A process interferes with concurrent timing if and only if process performance is related to complex span. Complex-span is the number of items correctly recalled in order, when each item presented for study is followed by a brief activity. Literature on task switching, visual search, memory search, word generation and mental time travel supports the hypothesis. Previous work found that another process, activation of a memory set in long term memory, is not related to complex-span. If the Timing and Complex-Span Hypothesis is true, activation should not interfere with concurrent timing in dual-task conditions. We tested such activation in single-task memory search task conditions and in dual-task conditions where memory search was executed with concurrent timing. In Experiment 1, activating a memory set increased reaction time, with no significant effect on time production. In Experiment 2, set size and memory set activation were manipulated. Activation and set size had a puzzling interaction for time productions, perhaps due to difficult conditions, leading us to use a related but easier task in Experiment 3. In Experiment 3 increasing set size lengthened time production, but memory activation had no significant effect. Results here and in previous literature on the whole support the Timing and Complex-Span Hypotheses. Results also support a sequential organization of activation and search of memory. This organization predicts activation and set size have additive effects on reaction time and multiplicative

  11. Human Resource Diversity Management in Selected Czech Agricultural Companies

    OpenAIRE

    H. Urbancová; H. Čermáková; M. Navrátilov

    2015-01-01

    The aim of this paper is to evaluate human resource Diversity Management in agricultural companies in the Czech Republic and to prepare a set of recommendations for the companies in this area. The primary data for the study was obtained by the use of questionnaires designed for quantitative analysis (n = 549, n agriculture = 108). The results indicate that the use of Diversity Management on Czech companies is relatively low (36.1%; n a = 108). But in view ...

  12. Ethiopian Journal of Agricultural Sciences: Submissions

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Journal Home > About the Journal > Ethiopian Journal of Agricultural ... for doing the work and the major objectives of the research or investigation; it should provide ... Acknowledgments, if any, may be given in a separate section immediately ...

  13. Toward malaysian sustainable agriculture in 21st century

    Science.gov (United States)

    Khorramnia, K.; Shariff, A. R. M.; Rahim, A. Abdul; Mansor, S.

    2014-02-01

    Sustainable agriculture should be able to meet various social goals and objectives so that it can be maintained for an indefinite period without significant negative impacts on environment and natural resources. A wide variety of agricultural activities are running in Malaysia. Maintaining high quality of agricultural products with lower environmental impacts through a sustainable economic viability and life satisfaction of farmers and community are important factors helping to meet sustainable agriculture. Human resources are playing key role in directing the community toward sustainable development. The trend of improving the human development index in Malaysia is highest in the East Asia and the Pacific, high human development countries and the world, since 2000. Precision agriculture is providing strong tools to achieve sustainable agriculture. Different types of sensors, positioning and navigation systems, GIS, software and variable rate technology are well known components of precision agriculture. Drones and robots are promising tools that enabling farmers and managers to collect information or perform particular actions in remote areas or tough conditions. According to a survey, forestry and timber, rubber production and oil palm estates are three main agricultural divisions that precision agriculture may improve the productivity in respect to area of cropland/worker. Main factors affecting the adoption of precision agriculture in Malaysia are: a) Political and legal supports, b) Decision support systems and user interfaces c) Experienced research team works d) National educational policy e) Success in commercialization of precision agriculture system.

  14. Toward malaysian sustainable agriculture in 21st century

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Khorramnia, K; Shariff, A R M; Rahim, A Abdul; Mansor, S

    2014-01-01

    Sustainable agriculture should be able to meet various social goals and objectives so that it can be maintained for an indefinite period without significant negative impacts on environment and natural resources. A wide variety of agricultural activities are running in Malaysia. Maintaining high quality of agricultural products with lower environmental impacts through a sustainable economic viability and life satisfaction of farmers and community are important factors helping to meet sustainable agriculture. Human resources are playing key role in directing the community toward sustainable development. The trend of improving the human development index in Malaysia is highest in the East Asia and the Pacific, high human development countries and the world, since 2000. Precision agriculture is providing strong tools to achieve sustainable agriculture. Different types of sensors, positioning and navigation systems, GIS, software and variable rate technology are well known components of precision agriculture. Drones and robots are promising tools that enabling farmers and managers to collect information or perform particular actions in remote areas or tough conditions. According to a survey, forestry and timber, rubber production and oil palm estates are three main agricultural divisions that precision agriculture may improve the productivity in respect to area of cropland/worker. Main factors affecting the adoption of precision agriculture in Malaysia are: a) Political and legal supports, b) Decision support systems and user interfaces c) Experienced research team works d) National educational policy e) Success in commercialization of precision agriculture system

  15. Energetics of coal substitution by briquettes of agricultural residues

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Purohit, Pallav; Tripathi, Arun Kumar; Kandpal, Tara Chandra [Centre for Energy Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi 110016 (India)

    2006-07-15

    The suitability of using biomass briquettes to substitute coal is debatable, as a substantial amount of energy is required for briquetting of biomass. In the present work, an attempt to evaluate the energetic viability of briquetting of agricultural residues compared with the energy embodied in coal in India has been made. Briquetting of agricultural residues is not found to be an energetically viable option even for locations at a distance of about 1500km from the coal pithead (even if the briquetting unit is located very close to the place of availability of the agricultural residues). A need for transportation of agricultural residues further pushes this critical distance upwards. (author)

  16. Conservationist Systems, one environmental alternative for the agriculture of the Northeastern Andes of Colombia

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Villamizar Moreno, J.

    1999-01-01

    The article shows the results of a proposal of alternative handling of the agriculture ecosystem tobacco-bean-maize, main agricultural activity of the Northeastern Andes of Colombia. This system is the base of the economic and alimentary security and the main factor of degradation of the natural resources of the region. The work looks for to develop the diversified rotations, as essential component of biological diversity, the reduced works as strategy of protection of the soil and the promotion of the agriculture ecology like new model of agricultural development. The results of the work show that the high volume of organic residuals coming from the rotation tobacco bean maize, become compost in the field and the reduction of the farm, they promote the stability of the productive components of the soils and their agricultural yields. The biggest levels of organic matter and of total porosity, generated by the biggest biological activity, they indicate that the technological alternatives of the proposal slow the effects of the degradation originated by the conventional agriculture. These alternatives can be included in the regional programs of agricultural production, like solution principle and as strategy for the sustainable development of the region

  17. Abolition of set-aside schemes and its impacts on habitat styructure in Denmark from 2007-2008

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Levin, Gregor

    2010-01-01

    Agriculture accounts for 65% of the Danish land area. Habitats for wild species are characterized by small patches, surrounded by intensive agriculture. Due to extensive management, set-aside land can if located close to habitats, improve habitat structure in terms of patch size and connectivity....... In 2008 set-aside schemes were abolished, leading to a decline in the area of set-aside land from 6% of all agricultural land in 2007 to 3% in 2008. We developed an indicator aiming to measure the effect of the reduced area of set-aside land on habitat structure. The indicator combines distance...... to habitats, potential corridors between habitats and area percentage of set-aside land. Analyses show that the halving of the area of set-aside land has led to a 55% reduction of the effect of set-aside land on habitat structure....

  18. Research on the performance evaluation of agricultural products supply chain integrated operation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jiang, Jiake; Wang, Xifu; Liu, Yang

    2017-04-01

    The agricultural product supply chain integrated operation can ensure the quality and efficiency of agricultural products, and achieve the optimal goal of low cost and high service. This paper establishes a performance evaluation index system of agricultural products supply chain integration operation based on the development status of agricultural products and SCOR, BSC and KPI model. And then, we constructing rough set theory and BP neural network comprehensive evaluation model with the aid of Rosetta and MATLAB tools and the case study is about the development of agricultural products integrated supply chain in Jing-Jin-Ji region. And finally, we obtain the corresponding performance results, and give some improvement measures and management recommendations to the managers.

  19. A Field-Scale Sensor Network Data Set for Monitoring and Modeling the Spatial and Temporal Variation of Soil Water Content in a Dryland Agricultural Field

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gasch, C. K.; Brown, D. J.; Campbell, C. S.; Cobos, D. R.; Brooks, E. S.; Chahal, M.; Poggio, M.

    2017-12-01

    We describe a soil water content monitoring data set and auxiliary data collected at a 37 ha experimental no-till farm in the Northwestern United States. Water content measurements have been compiled hourly since 2007 by ECH2O-TE and 5TE sensors installed at 42 locations and five depths (0.3, 0.6, 0.9, 1.2, and 1.5 m, 210 sensors total) across the R.J. Cook Agronomy Farm, a Long-Term Agro-Ecosystem Research Site stationed on complex terrain in a Mediterranean climate. In addition to soil water content readings, the data set includes hourly and daily soil temperature readings, annual crop histories, a digital elevation model, Bt horizon maps, seasonal apparent electrical conductivity, soil texture, and soil bulk density. Meteorological records are also available for this location. We discuss the unique challenges of maintaining the network on an operating farm and demonstrate the nature and complexity of the soil water content data. This data set is accessible online through the National Agriculture Library, has been assigned a DOI, and will be maintained for the long term.

  20. motorable roads and transportation system in the agricultural zones

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    sustain the traditional farming system. ... Consequently, people have to travel to work, to play, to buy and sell, to obtain professional services, to socialize and to convey agricultural products from one place to another. Road is an asset to ..... Cleaver, K.M (1993) A Strategy to Develop Agriculture in Sub-Saharan African and a.

  1. Why Agricultural Educators Remain in the Classroom

    Science.gov (United States)

    Crutchfield, Nina; Ritz, Rudy; Burris, Scott

    2013-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to identify and describe factors that are related to agricultural educator career retention and to explore the relationships between work engagement, work-life balance, occupational commitment, and personal and career factors as related to the decision to remain in the teaching profession. The target population for…

  2. Towards an Open Software Platform for Field Robots in Precision Agriculture

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kjeld Jensen

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available Robotics in precision agriculture has the potential to improve competitiveness and increase sustainability compared to current crop production methods and has become an increasingly active area of research. Tractor guidance systems for supervised navigation and implement control have reached the market, and prototypes of field robots performing precision agriculture tasks without human intervention also exist. But research in advanced cognitive perception and behaviour that is required to enable a more efficient, reliable and safe autonomy becomes increasingly demanding due to the growing software complexity. A lack of collaboration between research groups contributes to the problem. Scientific publications describe methods and results from the work, but little field robot software is released and documented for others to use. We hypothesize that a common open software platform tailored to field robots in precision agriculture will significantly decrease development time and resources required to perform experiments due to efficient reuse of existing work across projects and robot platforms. In this work we present the FroboMind software platform and evaluate the performance when applied to precision agriculture tasks.

  3. [Proposal of a method for collective analysis of work-related accidents in the hospital setting].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Osório, Claudia; Machado, Jorge Mesquita Huet; Minayo-Gomez, Carlos

    2005-01-01

    The article presents a method for the analysis of work-related accidents in hospitals, with the double aim of analyzing accidents in light of actual work activity and enhancing the vitality of the various professions that comprise hospital work. This process involves both research and intervention, combining knowledge output with training of health professionals, fostering expanded participation by workers in managing their daily work. The method consists of stimulating workers to recreate the situation in which a given accident occurred, shifting themselves to the position of observers of their own work. In the first stage of analysis, workers are asked to show the work analyst how the accident occurred; in the second stage, the work accident victim and analyst jointly record the described series of events in a diagram; in the third, the resulting record is re-discussed and further elaborated; in the fourth, the work accident victim and analyst evaluate and implement measures aimed to prevent the accident from recurring. The article concludes by discussing the method's possibilities and limitations in the hospital setting.

  4. Research on the Legal Regulation of Market Access for Agricultural Products in China

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    2011-01-01

    On the basis of defining the concept of market access for agricultural products,this paper analyzes the necessity of establishing market access system of agricultural products,proposes the conception of establishing market access system of agricultural products in China;sets up the frame of market access system of agricultural products;analyzes the rationality of the frame of market access system of agricultural products;poses the consideration of economic law regarding setup of market access system of agricultural products.This paper also puts forward the legislative suggestions for establishing market access system of agricultural products as follows:establish the frame of market access system of agricultural products taking quality access as core;establish and perfect the compensation and relief system of guaranteeing benefit of manager and producers;establish the market access system of agricultural products with hierarchical structure;sort out existing laws and form the sound the legal frame of market access system of agricultural products.

  5. DESIGN OF INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM OF VERTICALLY INTEGRATED AGRICULTURAL HOLDINGS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Александр Витальевич ШМАТКО

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available The paper deals with an approach to the design and development of information systems for the management and optimization of the organizational structure of vertically integrated agricultural holdings. A review of the problems of building and improving the organizational structure of vertically integrated agricultural holding is made. A method of constructing a discrete model management structure agricultural holding, which minimizes the costs associated with attracting applicants to work, is proposed.

  6. extent of use of ict by fish farmers in isoko agricultural zone of delta

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Mr. TONY A

    their productivity. Key words: Feminization ... Feminization of agriculture refers to women's increasing participation in agricultural labour force ... agricultural labour is the process by which increasingly more of on-farm work is done by women ...

  7. Groundwater denitrification in two agricultural river catchments: influence of hydro-geological setting and aquifer geochemistry

    Science.gov (United States)

    McAleer, Eoin; Mellander, Per-Erik; Coxon, Catherine; Richards, Karl G.; Jahangir, Mohammad M. R.

    2015-04-01

    Identifying subsurface environments with a natural capacity for denitrification is important for improving agricultural management. At the catchment scale, a complex hierarchy of landscape, hydro-geological and physico-chemical characteristics combine to affect the distribution of groundwater nitrate (NO3-). This study was conducted along four instrumented hillslopes in two ca. 10km2 agricultural river catchments in Ireland, one dominated by arable and one by grassland agriculture. Both catchments are characterised by well drained soils, but have differing aquifer characteristics. The arable catchment is underlain by weathered Ordovician slate bedrock which is extensively fractured with depth. The grassland catchment is characterised by Devonian sandstone bedrock, exhibiting both lateral (from upslope to near stream) and vertical variations in permeability along each hillslope. The capacity for groundwater denitrification was assessed by examining the concentration and distribution patterns of N species (total nitrogen, nitrate, nitrite, ammonium), dissolved organic carbon (DOC), dissolved oxygen (DO) and redox potential (Eh) in monthly samples from shallow and deep groundwater piezometers (n=37). Additionally, the gaseous products of denitrification: nitrous oxide (N2O) and excess dinitrogen (excess N2) were measured seasonally using gas chromatography and membrane inlet mass spectroscopy, respectively. The slate catchment was characterised by uniformity, both laterally and vertically, in aquifer geochemistry and gaseous denitrification products. The four year spatial mean groundwater NO3--N concentration was 6.89 mg/l and exhibited low spatial and temporal variability (temporal SD: 1.19 mg/l, spatial SD: 1.185 mg/l). Elevated DO concentrations (mean: 9.75 mg/l) and positive Eh (mean: +176.5mV) at all sample horizons indicated a setting with little denitrification potential. This non-reducing environment was reflected in a low accumulation of denitrification

  8. Evaluation of unsaturated-zone solute-transport models for studies of agricultural chemicals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nolan, Bernard T.; Bayless, E. Randall; Green, Christopher T.; Garg, Sheena; Voss, Frank D.; Lampe, David C.; Barbash, Jack E.; Capel, Paul D.; Bekins, Barbara A.

    2005-01-01

    Seven unsaturated-zone solute-transport models were tested with two data sets to select models for use by the Agricultural Chemical Team of the U.S. Geological Survey's National Water-Quality Assessment Program. The data sets were from a bromide tracer test near Merced, California, and an atrazine study in the White River Basin, Indiana. In this study the models are designated either as complex or simple based on the water flux algorithm. The complex models, HYDRUS2D, LEACHP, RZWQM, and VS2DT, use Richards' equation to simulate water flux and are well suited to process understanding. The simple models, CALF, GLEAMS, and PRZM, use a tipping-bucket algorithm and are more amenable to extrapolation because they require fewer input parameters. The purpose of this report is not to endorse a particular model, but to describe useful features, potential capabilities, and possible limitations that emerged from working with the model input data sets. More rigorous assessment of model applicability involves proper calibration, which was beyond the scope of this study.

  9. Beyond forestry: why agriculture is key to success of REDD+

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Grieg-Gran, Maryanne

    2010-11-15

    When it comes to deforestation, the task of reconciling climate and development goals poses a daunting challenge. Forest clearing is both the source of significant greenhouse gas emissions that fuel climate change and, for some farmers, the most practical means for expanding agricultural production to meet rising food demands. 'REDD' or 'REDD+' mechanisms for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, by providing developing countries with incentives to conserve their forests, are rapidly gaining credence as effective tools for mitigating climate change. But if they are to work, they must pay more attention to the role of agriculture in deforestation and the implications for food security of reducing deforestation. Improving agricultural productivity will be key. But productivity gains must not undermine REDD+ efforts. This means nurturing low-emission alternatives to forest clearing. It means supporting poor farmers to adapt to climate change. Above all, it means climate, forest and agriculture policy communities must work together.

  10. A book review of Spatial data analysis in ecology and agriculture using R

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spatial Data Analysis in Ecology and Agriculture Using R is a valuable resource to assist agricultural and ecological researchers with spatial data analyses using the R statistical software(www.r-project.org). Special emphasis is on spatial data sets; how-ever, the text also provides ample guidance ...

  11. Comparison of Agricultural Drought Indicators over West Africa

    Science.gov (United States)

    Husak, G. J.; Turner, W.; McNally, A.; Shukla, S.; Funk, C. C.

    2017-12-01

    The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) monitors critical environmental variables that impact food production in developing countries, including over 30 countries in Africa. Much of this work focuses on the identification of agricultural drought using remotely sensed and modeled estimates of conditions. These variables estimate precipitation, potential evapotranspiration, water availability for crops and soil moisture - among others - at a critical time, or accumulated over intervals within the season. Frequently, these variables are used in a "convergence of evidence" approach to identify the location and severity of agricultural drought over a region. While much work has gone into identifying and calculating these key indicators, little attention has been given to the relationships between these variables. This work explores the relationship between four key agricultural drought indicators over West Africa to determine the extent to which they are providing unique information and also to expose where certain variables may not be adding independent information to the identification of agricultural drought and the potential for food insecurity. These variables investigated in this study are the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI), the Water Requirement Satisfaction Index (WRSI) and modeled soil moisture (SM) from the FEWSNET Land Data Assimilation System (FLDAS). We look at 35 years of data (1982-2016) over West Africa and identify the primary growing season for the region, then compare the four variables above during this prime season. Because the computational costs of calculating these different indicators varies, we seek to identify where products that are less cost/data intensive adequately capture the same information as the more intensive indicators. The outcome highlights where particular products are most useful for the identification of agricultural drought over the region.

  12. MIRCA2000—Global monthly irrigated and rainfed crop areas around the year 2000: A new high-resolution data set for agricultural and hydrological modeling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Portmann, Felix T.; Siebert, Stefan; DöLl, Petra

    2010-03-01

    To support global-scale assessments that are sensitive to agricultural land use, we developed the global data set of monthly irrigated and rainfed crop areas around the year 2000 (MIRCA2000). With a spatial resolution of 5 arc min (about 9.2 km at the equator), MIRCA2000 provides both irrigated and rainfed crop areas of 26 crop classes for each month of the year. The data set covers all major food crops as well as cotton. Other crops are grouped into categories (perennial, annual, and fodder grasses). It represents multicropping systems and maximizes consistency with census-based national and subnational statistics. According to MIRCA2000, 25% of the global harvested areas are irrigated, with a cropping intensity (including fallow land) of 1.12, as compared to 0.84 for the sum of rainfed and irrigated harvested crops. For the dominant crops (rice (1.7 million km2 harvested area), wheat (2.1 million km2), and maize (1.5 million km2)), roughly 60%, 30%, and 20% of the harvested areas are irrigated, respectively, and half of the citrus, sugar cane, and cotton areas. While wheat and maize are the crops with the largest rainfed harvested areas (1.5 million km2 and 1.2 million km2, respectively), rice is clearly the crop with the largest irrigated harvested area (1.0 million km2), followed by wheat (0.7 million km2) and maize (0.3 million km2). Using MIRCA2000, 33% of global crop production and 44% of total cereal production were determined to come from irrigated agriculture.

  13. Organization of work in the agricultural, forestry, and fishing sector in the US southeast: implications for immigrant workers' occupational safety and health.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grzywacz, Joseph G; Lipscomb, Hester J; Casanova, Vanessa; Neis, Barbara; Fraser, Clermont; Monaghan, Paul; Vallejos, Quirina M

    2013-08-01

    There is widespread agreement that work organization is an important element of occupational safety and health, but the health effects of many aspects of work organization are likely to vary considerably across different sectors of work and geographies. We examined existing employment policies and work organization-related research relevant specifically to immigrant workers in the Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing (AgFF) Sector of the US workforce focusing, when possible, on the southeastern US. A number of specific aspects of work organization within AgFF subsectors have been described, but most of this literature exists outside the purview of occupational health. There are few studies that directly examine how attributes of work organization relevant to the AgFF Sector affect workers', much less immigrant workers', occupational health exposures and outcomes. In contrast to the broader literature, research linking occupational health outcomes to work organization in the AgFF Sector is limited and weak. A systematic program of research and intervention is needed to develop strategies that eliminate or substantially mitigate the deleterious health effects of occupational exposures whose origins likely lie in the organization of AgFF work. Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  14. Advances in Sensors Applied to Agriculture and Forestry

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gonzalo Pajares

    2011-09-01

    Full Text Available In agriculture and forestry, the need to increase production and the simultaneous efforts to minimize the environmental impact of agricultural production processes and save costs find in sensor systems the best allied tool. The use of sensors helps exploit all available resources appropriately and to apply hazardous products moderately. When nutrients in the soil, humidity, solar radiation, density of weeds and a broad set of factors and data affecting the production are known, this situation improves and the use of chemical products such as fertilizers, herbicides and other pollutants can be reduced considerably. Part of this knowledge allows also monitoring photosynthetic parameters of high relevance for photosynthesis. Most of the associated activities fall within the scope of what it is called Precision Agriculture, an emerging area receiving special attention in recent years. [...

  15. Job Resources, Physician Work Engagement, and Patient Care Experience in an Academic Medical Setting.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Scheepers, Renée A; Lases, Lenny S S; Arah, Onyebuchi A; Heineman, Maas Jan; Lombarts, Kiki M J M H

    2017-10-01

    Physician work engagement is associated with better work performance and fewer medical errors; however, whether work-engaged physicians perform better from the patient perspective is unknown. Although availability of job resources (autonomy, colleague support, participation in decision making, opportunities for learning) bolster work engagement, this relationship is understudied among physicians. This study investigated associations of physician work engagement with patient care experience and job resources in an academic setting. The authors collected patient care experience evaluations, using nine validated items from the Dutch Consumer Quality index in two academic hospitals (April 2014 to April 2015). Physicians reported job resources and work engagement using, respectively, the validated Questionnaire on Experience and Evaluation of Work and the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale. The authors conducted multivariate adjusted mixed linear model and linear regression analyses. Of the 9,802 eligible patients and 238 eligible physicians, respectively, 4,573 (47%) and 185 (78%) participated. Physician work engagement was not associated with patient care experience (B = 0.01; 95% confidence interval [CI] = -0.02 to 0.03; P = .669). However, learning opportunities (B = 0.28; 95% CI = 0.05 to 0.52; P = .019) and autonomy (B = 0.31; 95% CI = 0.10 to 0.51; P = .004) were positively associated with work engagement. Higher physician work engagement did not translate into better patient care experience. Patient experience may benefit from physicians who deliver stable quality under varying levels of work engagement. From the physicians' perspective, autonomy and learning opportunities could safeguard their work engagement.

  16. Agriculture and Water Quality. Issues in Agricultural Policy. Agriculture Information Bulletin Number 548.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Crowder, Bradley M.; And Others

    Agriculture generates byproducts that may contribute to the contamination of the United States' water supply. Any effective regulations to ban or restrict agricultural chemical or land use practices in order to improve water quality will affect the farm economy. Some farmers will benefit; some will not. Most agricultural pollutants reach surface…

  17. Prioritizing Nutrition in Agriculture and Rural Development : Guiding Principles for Operational Investments

    OpenAIRE

    Herforth, Anna; Jones, Andrew; Pinstrup-Andersen, Per

    2012-01-01

    Agricultural and rural development provides a critically important opportunity for reducing malnutrition. The purpose of this paper is to provide a set of guiding principles for incorporating nutrition goals into the design and implementation of agricultural and rural development projects, and to provide examples of current best evidence options for operational investments. Several princip...

  18. Information and Communication Technology in Non-agricultural ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    ... problem census results reveal that respondents generally ranked “lack of information on modern job technique/ideas” third only to inadequate capital and high cost of living. It is thus imperative to set up a system that would generate and disseminate non-agricultural information and knowledge for rural transformation by, ...

  19. How do nurse practitioners work in primary health care settings? A scoping review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grant, Julian; Lines, Lauren; Darbyshire, Philip; Parry, Yvonne

    2017-10-01

    This scoping review explores the work of nurse practitioners in primary health care settings in developed countries and critiques their contribution to improved health outcomes. A scoping review design was employed and included development of a research question, identification of potentially relevant studies, selection of relevant studies, charting data, collating, summarising and reporting findings. An additional step was added to evaluate the methodological rigor of each study. Data sources included literature identified by a search of electronic databases conducted in September 2015 (CINAHL, Informit, Web of Science, Scopus and Medline) and repeated in July 2016. Additional studies were located through hand searching and authors' knowledge of other relevant studies. 74 articles from eight countries were identified, with the majority emanating from the United States of America. Nurse practitioners working in communities provided care mostly in primary care centres (n=42), but also in community centres (n=6), outpatient departments (n=6), homes (n=5), schools (n=3), child abuse clinics (n=1), via communication technologies (n=6), and through combined face-to-face and communication technologies (n=5). The scope of nurse practitioner work varied on a continuum from being targeted towards a specific disease process or managing individual health and wellbeing needs in a holistic manner. Enhanced skills included co-ordination, collaboration, education, counselling, connecting clients with services and advocacy. Measures used to evaluate outcomes varied widely from physiological data (n=25), hospital admissions (n=10), use of health services (n=15), self-reported health (n=13), behavioural change (n=14), patient satisfaction (n=17), cost savings (n=3) and mortality/morbidity (n=5). The majority of nurse practitioners working in community settings did so within a selective model of primary health care with some examples of nurse practitioners contributing to

  20. Agriculture energy prospective by 2030: scenarios and action patterns; Prospective Agriculture Energie 2030: scenarios et pistes d'action

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2010-07-01

    This paper presents and comments the main results of a work-group focused on the evolution of agriculture in France in relationship with the new energetic context. Four scenarios have been defined, corresponding to different energetic, but also social, political and economic contexts by 2030. The first one corresponds to a severe energy crisis with an emergence of regional governance. The second one corresponds to a high volatility of energy prices, an increased easing of restrictions on trade, and a decrease of public supports and subsidies for agriculture. The third one corresponds to a strong reduction of the use of phyto-sanitary products in agriculture, a continuous urban sprawl, and the prevalence of road transport. The fourth one corresponds to agriculture respectful of the environment and a good management of energy consumption. Direct and indirect energy consumptions are assessed for the four scenarios. Some general and operational objectives are thus identified

  1. An Index to Measure Effects of a Declining Area of Set-aside Land on Habitat-connectivity in Denmark

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Levin, Gregor

    2009-01-01

    In Denmark, agriculture occupies 28,000 km² or 65% of the land. As a consequence, habitats for wild species are mainly characterized by small patches, surrounded by intensive agriculture. Due to extensive agricultural management, set-aside land can spatially connect habitats and thus positively...... affect habitat connectivity, which is of importance to the survival of wild species. In 2008 set-aside schemes were abolished, leading to a considerable re-cultivation of former set-aside land and consequently to a decline in the area of set-aside land from 6% of all agricultural land in 2007 to 3...... to natural habitats, would typically not be re-cultivated. I developed an indicator aiming to measure the effect of the reduced area of set-aside land on habitat-connectivity. For a raster-map with a resolution of 25x25 meters, the indicator combines the distance to habitats with the area percentage of set...

  2. Occupational activities associated with a reported history of malaria among women working in small-scale agriculture in South Africa

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    S. Naidoo (Steven); L. London (Leslie); A. Burdorf (Alex); S. Naidoo (Steven); H. Kromhout (Hans)

    2011-01-01

    textabstractMalaria-endemic agricultural communities are at risk for this disease because of crop and agricultural activities. A cross-sectional survey among women in small-scale agriculture on irrigated and dryland areas in Makhatini Flats, KwaZulu-Natal South Africa explored associations with

  3. WTO disciplines on agricultural support: Experience to date and assessment of Doha proposals

    OpenAIRE

    Orden, David; Blandford, David; Josling, Timothy Edward; Brink, Lars

    2011-01-01

    When the World Trade Organization (WTO) was created in 1995, its members committed themselves to a set of disciplines for domestic support, market access, and export competition for agriculture. The Agreement on Agriculture laid the way for the pursuit of progressive reductions in world agricultural market distortions. Its supporters hoped the new rules and commitments would encourage countries to move domestic farm policies in a less trade-distorting direction. This research brief examines t...

  4. Implementation of a competency assessment tool for agency nurses working in an acute paediatric setting.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hennerby, Cathy; Joyce, Pauline

    2011-03-01

    This paper reports on the implementation of a competency assessment tool for registered general agency nurses working in an acute paediatric setting, using a change management framework. The increased number of registered general agency nurses working in an acute children's hospital alerted concerns around their competency in working with children. These concerns were initially raised via informal complaints about 'near misses', parental dissatisfaction, perceived competency weaknesses and rising cost associated with their use. [Young's (2009) Journal of Organisational Change, 22, 524-548] nine-stage change framework was used to guide the implementation of the competency assessment tool within a paediatric acute care setting. The ongoing success of the initiative, from a nurse manager's perspective, relies on structured communication with the agency provider before employing competent agency nurses. Sustainability of the change will depend on nurse managers' persistence in attending the concerns of those resisting the change while simultaneously supporting those championing the change. These key communication and supporting roles highlight the pivotal role held by nurse managers, as gate keepers, in safe-guarding children while in hospital. Leadership qualities of nurse managers will also be challenged in continuing to manage and drive the change where resistance might prevail. © 2011 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

  5. Labor and Employment in Brazilian Northeastern Agriculture: a look at the 2004-2014 period

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Otavio Valentim Balsadi

    Full Text Available Abstract: The labor market in the Brazilian Northeastern agriculture is characterized by many forms of occupation, ranging from the salaried work to the various forms of family work. In a heterogeneous and diverse agriculture, there is a complex labor market, with changes in recent times. Therefore, it is necessary to keep a watchful eye on important structural features. As a result, this paper aims to analyze the main aspects related to work and employment relations in the Brazilian Northeastern agriculture in the 2004-2014 period. The sources of information are special tabulations from the National Survey by Household Sample (PNAD, conducted by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE. The results pointed to a continuing decline in Northeastern PEA (Economically Active Population occupied in agriculture, partially offset by the growth of Northeastern rural residents occupied in non-agricultural activities, in addition to the people occupied in self-consumption production. Women and young people were the ones who mostly left the agricultural activities, reinforcing the “ageing” process of the occupied PEA. The crops with the largest reduction in the occupied in agricultural PEA were: cassava, rice, coffee, banana, sugarcane, cocoa, vegetables and fruits. On the other hand, the number of occupied people increased in: corn and grape cultivation, services for agriculture, swine and poultry farming and integrated agricultural and livestock production systems. An increase in schooling of the occupied PEA was registered, though it is still below the national average.

  6. GLOBAL CHALLENGES FOR SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN SLOVAKIA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Magdalana Bartosova

    2013-09-01

    Full Text Available The paper is focused on the evaluation of economic, social and environmental challenges of sustainable agriculture. The selected indicators of the economic challenges of sustainable agriculture imply that agriculture in Slovakia is not in long term be able to ensure competitiveness in the European market, gross agricultural output is characterized by a faster decline in animal production than in crop production and the value of import of agri-food commodities is higher than the value of export. According to selected indicators of social challenges of sustainable agriculture the number of persons working in agriculture has decreasing tendency in last years. The evaluation of selected indicators of environmental challenges of sustainable agriculture implies that area of organic agriculture is the most widely applied sub-measure within the measure agri-environmental payments. For ensuring the balance of the three mentioned dimensions of sustainable agriculture is necessary to increase of local production and consumption of local products, to ensure the protection of nature and landscape, to ensure rural development and to increase the employment opportunities in countryside.

  7. Priority interventions to reduce HIV transmission in sex work settings in sub-Saharan Africa and delivery of these services

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    M. Chersich (Matthew); S. Luchters (Stanley); I. Ntaganira (Innocent); A. Gerbase (Antonio); Y-R. Lo (Ying-Ru); F. Scorgie (Fiona); R. Steen (Richard)

    2012-01-01

    textabstractIntroduction: Virtually no African country provides HIV prevention services in sex work settings with an adequate scale and intensity. Uncertainty remains about the optimal set of interventions and mode of delivery. Methods: We systematically reviewed studies reporting interventions for

  8. The Impact of Aging Agricultural Labor Population on Farmland Output: From the Perspective of Farmer Preferences

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Guancheng Guo

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Chinese agriculture is facing an aging workforce which could negatively impact the industry. In this context, research is needed on how work preferences and age of farmers affect agricultural output. This paper attempts to investigate these factors to more fully understand the impact of an aging agricultural labor population on agricultural production. The results show that, in this context of aging, changes in the working-age households have a significant impact on agricultural output. Despite the fact that the impacts of intention to abandon land management were not significant, we can ignore this preference in the workforce. The combination of changes in the composition of the working-age households indicates that 58.53 percent of the agricultural producers will likely quit. This is a potential threat for the future of agricultural development. We also found that elderly farmers who do not intend to abandon farming had higher agricultural output compared to other farmers. This indicates that the adverse effects of changes in the agricultural population age result more from the agricultural output of older farmers who intend to give up farming. This intention adversely affected other elements and reduced investment. Therefore, various forms of training should increase efforts to cultivate modern professional farmers and policies should be simultaneously developed to increase agricultural production levels.

  9. GEMAS: Unmixing magnetic properties of European agricultural soil

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fabian, Karl; Reimann, Clemens; Kuzina, Dilyara; Kosareva, Lina; Fattakhova, Leysan; Nurgaliev, Danis

    2016-04-01

    High resolution magnetic measurements provide new methods for world-wide characterization and monitoring of agricultural soil which is essential for quantifying geologic and human impact on the critical zone environment and consequences of climatic change, for planning economic and ecological land use, and for forensic applications. Hysteresis measurements of all Ap samples from the GEMAS survey yield a comprehensive overview of mineral magnetic properties in European agricultural soil on a continental scale. Low (460 Hz), and high frequency (4600 Hz) magnetic susceptibility k were measured using a Bartington MS2B sensor. Hysteresis properties were determined by a J-coercivity spectrometer, built at the paleomagnetic laboratory of Kazan University, providing for each sample a modified hysteresis loop, backfield curve, acquisition curve of isothermal remanent magnetization, and a viscous IRM decay spectrum. Each measurement set is obtained in a single run from zero field up to 1.5 T and back to -1.5 T. The resulting data are used to create the first continental-scale maps of magnetic soil parameters. Because the GEMAS geochemical atlas contains a comprehensive set of geochemical data for the same soil samples, the new data can be used to map magnetic parameters in relation to chemical and geological parameters. The data set also provides a unique opportunity to analyze the magnetic mineral fraction of the soil samples by unmixing their IRM acquisition curves. The endmember coefficients are interpreted by linear inversion for other magnetic, physical and chemical properties which results in an unprecedented and detailed view of the mineral magnetic composition of European agricultural soils.

  10. Qualitative overview of living conditions and health status of seasonal (mobile/temporary agricultural workers in two housing units

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mehmet Kaya

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available Objective: In this research we aimed to determine the status of seasonal agricultural workers located in two housing units in terms of living, working and health conditions.  Methods: This is a descriptive study using qualitative methods: in-depth interviews and in situ observations. It took place in provinces of Adana and Mersin located in the Çukurova region and the Şanlıurfa province. A common feature of these provinces is their high density of seasonal agricultural workers. Our field work was performed by going to places where seasonal agricultural workers live and work. The research was conducted during the dates of March 2014 and August 2014. Snowball sampling methods was used in this research. Data were collected by interviews with 26 seasonal agricultural workers who were older than 15. Results: Seasonal agricultural workers were working without social insurance, safe transportation facilities, or guarantee of employment and without any worker’s health and safety precautions being taken by the employees. Accommodation units lacked fundamental structural and safety features. Seasonal agricultural workers were faced with social alienation and could not access the basic health services such as vaccination, antenatal follow-up, reproductive health or outpatient services. Also, their diet was unbalanced and insufficient. Children could not take the benefit sufficiently from education and were employed in agricultural work. In addition to their agricultural work, women also were exploited in their domestic life. Conclusion: Seasonal agricultural workers were in an aggrieved position concerning topics such as transportation, accommodation, wages and social insurance. To eliminate these conditions, the opinion of agricultural middlemen, seasonal agricultural workers and employees should be taken into account with the financial support of local authorities under the scope of the law. 

  11. Agricultural Research Department annual report 1984

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1985-03-01

    A description is given of the work in the Agricultural Research Department of Risoe National Laboratory. The description is given under the headings a) plant breeding research, and b) energy sumption in plant cultivation. A list of staff members is also given. (bp)

  12. Advancing agricultural greenhouse gas quantification*

    Science.gov (United States)

    Olander, Lydia; Wollenberg, Eva; Tubiello, Francesco; Herold, Martin

    2013-03-01

    descriptive trends are sufficient or an understanding of drivers and causes are needed. While there are certainly similar needs across uses and users, the necessary methods, data, and models for quantifying GHGs may vary. Common challenges for quantification noted in an informal survey of users of GHG information by Olander et al (2013) include the following. 3.1. Need for user-friendly methods that work across scales, regions, and systems Much of the data gathered and models developed by the research community provide high confidence in data or indicators computed at one place or for one issue, thus they are relevant for only specific uses, not transparent, or not comparable. These research approaches need to be translated to practitioners though the development of farmer friendly, transparent, comparable, and broadly applicable methods. Many users noted the need for quantification data and methods that work and are accurate across region and scales. One of the interviewed users, Charlotte Streck, summed it up nicely: 'A priority would be to produce comparable datasets for agricultural GHG emissions of particular agricultural practices for a broad set of countries ... with a gradual increase in accuracy'. 3.2. Need for lower cost, feasible approaches Concerns about cost and complexity of existing quantification methods were raised by a number of users interviewed in the survey. In the field it is difficult to measure changes in GHGs from agricultural management due to spatial and temporal variability, and the scale of the management-induced changes relative to background pools and fluxes. Many users noted data gaps and inconsistencies and insufficient technical capacity and infrastructure to generate necessary information, particularly in developing countries. The need for creative approaches for data collection and analysis, such as crowd sourcing and mobile technology, were noted. 3.3. Need for methods that can crosswalk between emission-reduction strategy and inventories

  13. The New Zealand child work-related fatal injury study: 1985-1998.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lilley, Rebbecca; Feyer, Anne-Marie; Langley, John; Wren, John

    2004-05-21

    To estimate the numbers and rates of work-related fatal injury for children under the age of 15 years. Potential cases of work-related injury deaths of persons aged workplace work-related fatalities were identified. The vast majority of children identified were fatally injured while a bystander to another person's work. Workplace bystander involvement was found to vary by age, with the majority of workers identified aged 10-14 years old. With a third of all fatalities, the agricultural industry was the most common industry for workplace work-related fatalities in children. In the period 1985-94, children New Zealand's total workplace bystander deaths. Children contribute significantly to the overall burden of work-related fatal injury in New Zealand, especially as bystanders to other people's work. The high contribution to bystander deaths by children aged <15 years suggests that hazard control in certain work settings is lacking.

  14. Researches on Agricultural Cooperative Economic Organization Promoting Agricultural Insurance Development

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    2011-01-01

    The advantages of cooperative economic organization being the effective carrier of agricultural insurance development are analyzed. Firstly, cooperative economic organization promotes scale management and solves the problem of decentralized operation of small households. Secondly, cooperative economic organization can settle the problem of peasants’ low systematization. Thirdly, cooperative economic organization can largely reduce the costs of agricultural insurance operation. Fourthly, cooperative organization decreases moral risks as well as adverse selection to some extent. Lastly, cooperative organization, to a certain degree, reduces the risks of agricultural production and increases the insurability of agricultural risks. Meanwhile, limitations of agricultural cooperative economic organization being the carrier of agricultural insurance operation are pointed out. Firstly, cooperative economic organization has limited coverage and small size of organization, which is harmful to the diversification of agricultural risks. Secondly, cooperative economic organization lacks capital funds and its development is not standard, which is not perfect for the function exertion as a carrier. Lastly, members of professional cooperative organization have low cultural qualities, which restrict the implementation of agricultural insurance. The modes of farmers’ cooperative economic organization promoting agricultural insurance development are proposed, including mode of agricultural insurance cooperative ( mutual corporation), mode of "leading enterprises (companies) + professional cooperative organization (planting majors) + insurance" and mode of professional cooperatives serving as agricultural insurance agent. Last of all, the promoting role of agricultural insurance in agricultural cooperative economic organization is briefly illustrated.

  15. Agricultural Tractor Selection: A Hybrid and Multi-Attribute Approach

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jorge L. García-Alcaraz

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available Usually, agricultural tractor investments are assessed using traditional economic techniques that only involve financial attributes, resulting in reductionist evaluations. However, tractors have qualitative and quantitative attributes that must be simultaneously integrated into the evaluation process. This article reports a hybrid and multi-attribute approach to assessing a set of agricultural tractors based on AHP-TOPSIS. To identify the attributes in the model, a survey including eighteen attributes was given to agricultural machinery salesmen and farmers for determining their importance. The list of attributes was presented to a decision group for a case of study, and their importance was estimated using AHP and integrated into the TOPSIS technique. In this case, one tractor was selected from a set of six alternatives, integrating six attributes in the model: initial cost, annual maintenance cost, liters of diesel per hour, safety of the operator, maintainability and after-sale customer service offered by the supplier. Based on the results obtained, the model can be considered easy to apply and to have good acceptance among farmers and salesmen, as there are no special software requirements for the application.

  16. [Checklist Development for Women-Doctor-Friendly Working Conditions in a Hospital Setting].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Horie, Saki; Takeuchi, Masumi; Yamaoka, Kazue; Nohara, Michiko; Hasunuma, Naoko; Okinaga, Hiroko; Nomura, Kyoko

    2015-01-01

    This study aims to develop a scale of "women-doctor-friendly working conditions in a hospital setting". A task team consisting of relevant people including a medical doctor and a hospital personnel identified 36 items related to women-doctor-friendly working conditions. From December in 2012 to January in 2013, we sent a self-administered questionnaire to 807 full-time employees including faculty members and medical doctors who worked for a university-affiliated hospital. We asked them to score the extent to which they think it is necessary for women doctors to balance between work and gender role responsibilities on the basis of the Likert scale. We carried out a factor analysis and computed Cronbach's alpha to develop a scale and investigated its construct validity and reliability. Of the 807 employees, 291 returned the questionnaires (response rate, 36.1%). The item-total correlation (between an individual item score and the total score) coefficient was in the range from 0.44 to 0.68. In factor analysis, we deleted six items, and five factors were extracted on the basis of the least likelihood method with the oblique Promax rotation. The factors were termed "gender equality action in an organization", "the compliance of care leave in both sexes and parental leave in men", "balance between life events and work", "childcare support at the workplace", and "flexible employment status". The Cronbach's alpha values of all the factors and the total items were 0.82-0.89 and 0.93, respectively, suggesting that the scale we developed has high reliability. The result indicated that the scale of women-doctor-friendly working conditions consisting of five factors with 30 items is highly validated and reliable.

  17. analysis of the influence of agricultural and non-agricultural sectors ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    INIAMA

    agricultural GDP led to a 0.243% and 0.743% change in the economy respectively. It means that the economy is inelastic with respect to agricultural and non-agricultural sector performance. The economy is more inelastic with respect to agricultural production than non-agricultural production. In countries where economies ...

  18. Motivating Students through Awareness of the Natural Correlation between College Learning and Corporate Work Settings

    Science.gov (United States)

    D'Aloisio, Anna

    2006-01-01

    This article argues that college students can be motivated to be active participants in their own education if made aware of the direct correlation between college learning and corporate work settings. Students can be shown that through the natural course of college learning, they are acquiring valuable core skills or transferable competencies…

  19. New Institutional Theory and a Culture of Safety in Agriculture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Janssen, Brandi; Nonnenmann, Matthew W

    2017-01-01

    Health and safety professionals often call for an improved safety culture in agriculture. Such a shift would result in agricultural practices that prioritize safe work habits and see safety as both an effective means to improve production and a goal worth pursuing in its own right. This article takes an anthropological approach and demonstrates the potential for new institutional theory to conceptualize broader cultural change in agriculture. New institutional theory examines the roles of organizations and the ways that they inform and support broad social institutions. Using preliminary data from the agricultural lending industry in Iowa and integrated poultry production in Texas, this article considers the ability of these organizations to contribute to systemic change and an improved culture of safety in agriculture.

  20. Transgressing boundaries of tourism, agriculture and trade

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Stoye, Monica

    Introduction: Danish small-scale food producers working with origin labelled products (OLP) experience themselves as situated somewhere in between tourism, agriculture and business. The existence of OLP in Denmark is something completely new for both the tourism and agricultural sectors. Therefore......', the national steering committee for the project ‘Gourmet Denmark' and the national organisation ‘The Taste of Denmark'. Findings are structured through grounded theory. The smallest entity of observation is the local network. No individual interviews are planned. Findings: Previous work has shown that the vast...... majority of Danish small-scale food producers wish to participate in co-operative networks, which can strengthen the development of their own company. The group of companies is heterogeneous as regards the interest in growth. However, the majority of the growth-oriented companies share difficulties...

  1. Esophageal cancer among Brazilian agricultural workers: case-control study based on death certificates.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meyer, Armando; Alexandre, Pedro Celso Braga; Chrisman, Juliana de Rezende; Markowitz, Steven B; Koifman, Rosalina Jorge; Koifman, Sergio

    2011-03-01

    Several studies suggest that agricultural workers are at higher risk to develop and die by certain types of cancer. Esophageal cancer is not commonly listed among these types. However, some recent studies indicated that if there is an association between agricultural working and esophageal cancer, it s more likely to be observed among workers highly exposed to pesticides. In the present study, the magnitude of the association between agricultural working and esophageal cancer mortality was evaluated in a high pesticide use area in Brazil, through a death certificate-based case-control study. Cases were individuals from both genders, 30-59 years old, for whom basic cause of death was ascertained as cancer of the esophagus. For each case, one control was randomly selected from all possible controls for which the basic cause of death was ascertained as different from neoplasm and diseases of the digestive system. In addition, controls matched their cases by sex, age, year of death, and state of residence. Crude and adjusted odds ratios were then calculated to estimate the magnitude of the risk. Results showed that, in general, agricultural workers were at significantly higher risk to die by esophageal cancer, when compared to non-agricultural workers. Stratified analysis also revealed that the magnitude of such risk was slightly higher among illiterate agricultural workers, and simultaneous adjustment for several covariates showed that the risk was quantitatively higher among younger southern agricultural workers. These results suggest the esophageal cancer may be included among those types of cancer etiologically associated to agricultural working. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

  2. SACRA - global data sets of satellite-derived crop calendars for agricultural simulations: an estimation of a high-resolution crop calendar using satellite-sensed NDVI

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kotsuki, S.; Tanaka, K.

    2015-01-01

    To date, many studies have performed numerical estimations of food production and agricultural water demand to understand the present and future supply-demand relationship. A crop calendar (CC) is an essential input datum to estimate food production and agricultural water demand accurately with the numerical estimations. CC defines the date or month when farmers plant and harvest in cropland. This study aims to develop a new global data set of a satellite-derived crop calendar for agricultural simulations (SACRA) and reveal advantages and disadvantages of the satellite-derived CC compared to other global products. We estimate global CC at a spatial resolution of 5 min (≈10 km) using the satellite-sensed NDVI data, which corresponds well to vegetation growth and death on the land surface. We first demonstrate that SACRA shows similar spatial pattern in planting date compared to a census-based product. Moreover, SACRA reflects a variety of CC in the same administrative unit, since it uses high-resolution satellite data. However, a disadvantage is that the mixture of several crops in a grid is not considered in SACRA. We also address that the cultivation period of SACRA clearly corresponds to the time series of NDVI. Therefore, accuracy of SACRA depends on the accuracy of NDVI used for the CC estimation. Although SACRA shows different CC from a census-based product in some regions, multiple usages of the two products are useful to take into consideration the uncertainty of the CC. An advantage of SACRA compared to the census-based products is that SACRA provides not only planting/harvesting dates but also a peak date from the time series of NDVI data.

  3. Ecoinformatics (Big Data) for Agricultural Entomology: Pitfalls, Progress, and Promise.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rosenheim, Jay A; Gratton, Claudio

    2017-01-31

    Ecoinformatics, as defined in this review, is the use of preexisting data sets to address questions in ecology. We provide the first review of ecoinformatics methods in agricultural entomology. Ecoinformatics methods have been used to address the full range of questions studied by agricultural entomologists, enabled by the special opportunities associated with data sets, nearly all of which have been observational, that are larger and more diverse and that embrace larger spatial and temporal scales than most experimental studies do. We argue that ecoinformatics research methods and traditional, experimental research methods have strengths and weaknesses that are largely complementary. We address the important interpretational challenges associated with observational data sets, highlight common pitfalls, and propose some best practices for researchers using these methods. Ecoinformatics methods hold great promise as a vehicle for capitalizing on the explosion of data emanating from farmers, researchers, and the public, as novel sampling and sensing techniques are developed and digital data sharing becomes more widespread.

  4. Connections and economic importance of agriculture and rural tourism

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Petrović Gordana

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available In recent years, is often heard that Serbia has very favorable conditions for the development of rural tourism. We are constantly talking about the revival of Serbian villages. However, Serbia has a large number of villages ask questions on how to survive and how to improve the conditions of life in them. Since the creation of adequate conditions for life in the country depends on whether it will be and how it continues to evolve. Recommendations of the World Tourism Organization is the development of rural tourism. The reason for this is the favorable geographical position, varied relief, a pleasant climate, rich flora and fauna, interesting history, traditions, folklore ... should be taken of the fact that the Republic of Serbia has a predominantly rural characteristics, because 85% of the territory consists of rural areas inhabited by some 45-55% of the population. The main activity of the population in rural areas is agriculture, where 23% of the working population works in agriculture and generates about 40% of the total gross national income. Between agriculture and rural tourism there are a lot of permeation and solid connections. This cross-sectoral exchange of the common village. Tourism needed agricultural products throughout the year, and agriculture are required consumers. Rural tourism should be the backbone of economic development to raise living standards in the rural community.

  5. Implementation of AN Agricultural Environmental Information System (aeis) for the Sanjiang Plain, Ne-China

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Q.; Brocks, S.; Lenz-Wiedemann, V.; Miao, Y.; Jiang, R.; Chen, X.; Zhang, F.; Bareth, G.

    2012-07-01

    The Sino-German Project between the China Agricultural University and the University of Cologne, Germany, focuses on regional agro-ecosystem modelling. One major focus of the cooperation activity is the establishment of joint rice field experiment research in Jiansanjiang, located in the Sanjiang Plain (Heilongjiang Province, north-eastern part of China), to investigate the different agricultural practices and their impact on yield and environment. An additional task is to set-up an Agricultural Environmental Information System (AEIS) for the Sanjiang Plain (SJP), which covers more than 100 000 km2. Research groups from Geography (e.g. GIS & Remote Sensing) and Plant Nutrition (e.g. Precision Agriculture) are involved in the project. The major aim of the AEIS for the SJP is to provide information about (i) agriculture in the region, (ii) the impact of agricultural practices on the environment, and (iii) simulation scenarios for sustainable strategies. Consequently, the AEIS for the SJP provides information for decision support and therefore could be regarded as a Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS), too. The investigation of agricultural and environmental issues has a spatial context, which requires the management, handling, and analysis of spatial data. The use of GIS enables the capture, storage, analysis and presentation of spatial data. Therefore, GIS is the major tool for the set-up of the AEIS for the SJP. This contribution presents the results of linking agricultural statistics with GIS to provide information about agriculture in the SJP and discusses the benefits of this method as well as the integration of methods to produce new data.

  6. Establishing the Reliability and Validity of a Computerized Assessment of Children's Working Memory for Use in Group Settings

    Science.gov (United States)

    St Clair-Thompson, Helen

    2014-01-01

    The aim of the present study was to investigate the reliability and validity of a brief standardized assessment of children's working memory; "Lucid Recall." Although there are many established assessments of working memory, "Lucid Recall" is fully automated and can therefore be administered in a group setting. It is therefore…

  7. Changing World, Unchanging Accounting? Cost Systems for Hungarian Agricultural Companies

    OpenAIRE

    Zoltán Musinszki

    2011-01-01

    The literature of agricultural cost accounting has defined the definition of cost centres and cost bearers, the contents of the accounts, the procedures and methods for cost accounting and unit cost calculation without any significant changes for decades now. Do the agricultural companies set up and operate their own cost allocation and unit cost calculation systems on procedures made for state owned farms and cooperatives, or do they align their cost system with the challenges of our times? ...

  8. The use of moral dilemmas for teaching agricultural engineers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lozano, J Félix; Palau-Salvador, Guillermo; Gozálvez, Vincent; Boni, Alejandra

    2006-04-01

    Agricultural engineers' jobs are especially related to sustainability and earth life issues. They usually work with plants or animals, and the aim of their work is often linked to producing food to allow people to improve their quality of life. Taking into account this dual function, the moral requirements of their day-to-day professional practice are arguably greater than those of other professions. Agricultural engineers can develop their ability to live up to this professional responsibility by receiving ethical training during their university studies, not only by taking courses specifically devoted to ethics, but also by having to deal with moral questions that are integrated into their technical courses through a program of Ethics Across the Curriculum (EAC). The authors feel that a suitable pedagogical technique for achieving this goal is the use of moral dilemmas, following Kohlberg's theory of levels of morality (1981), with the final objective of attaining a post-conventional level. This paper examines the possibilities and limitations of using moral dilemmas as a pedagogical technique for training agricultural engineers. The cases, discussions, and evaluation used in the Agricultural Engineering Department of the Technical University of Valencia (Spain) are also presented.

  9. Spatially optimal habitat management for enhancing natural control of an invasive agricultural pest: soybean aphid

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Zhang, W.; Werf, van der W.; Swinton, S.M.

    2010-01-01

    By their direct effects on private profitability, invasive agricultural pests create special incentives for management that set them apart from other categories of invasive species. One attractive nonchemical management approach for agricultural pests relies upon biological control by natural

  10. Aerial Photography and Imagery, Ortho-Corrected, This data set contains imagery from the National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP). NAIP acquires digital ortho imagery during the agricultural growing seasons in the continental U.S. NAIP imagery may contain as much as 10% cloud cover per tile. This fil, Published in 2005, 1:63360 (1in=1mile) scale, University of Georgia.

    Data.gov (United States)

    NSGIC Education | GIS Inventory — Aerial Photography and Imagery, Ortho-Corrected dataset current as of 2005. This data set contains imagery from the National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP). NAIP...

  11. Agricultural pricing policy in Kenya : scope and impact

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Meilink, H.A.

    1985-01-01

    Reviews the findings of available studies and reports thought to be of relevance to policy makers. A discussion of the institutional framework, of criteria used in price-setting procedures, and of scope and objectives of the agricultural pricing policies is folowed by an examination of what these

  12. Towards deep inclusion for equity-oriented health research priority-setting: A working model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pratt, Bridget; Merritt, Maria; Hyder, Adnan A

    2016-02-01

    Growing consensus that health research funders should align their investments with national research priorities presupposes that such national priorities exist and are just. Arguably, justice requires national health research priority-setting to promote health equity. Such a position is consistent with recommendations made by the World Health Organization and at global ministerial summits that health research should serve to reduce health inequalities between and within countries. Thus far, no specific requirements for equity-oriented research priority-setting have been described to guide policymakers. As a step towards the explication and defence of such requirements, we propose that deep inclusion is a key procedural component of equity-oriented research priority-setting. We offer a model of deep inclusion that was developed by applying concepts from work on deliberative democracy and development ethics. This model consists of three dimensions--breadth, qualitative equality, and high-quality non-elite participation. Deep inclusion is captured not only by who is invited to join a decision-making process but also by how they are involved and by when non-elite stakeholders are involved. To clarify and illustrate the proposed dimensions, we use the sustained example of health systems research. We conclude by reviewing practical challenges to achieving deep inclusion. Despite the existence of barriers to implementation, our model can help policymakers and other stakeholders design more inclusive national health research priority-setting processes and assess these processes' depth of inclusion. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  13. Fungal biology and agriculture: revisiting the field

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yarden, O.; Ebbole, D.J.; Freeman, S.; Rodriguez, R.J.; Dickman, M. B.

    2003-01-01

    Plant pathology has made significant progress over the years, a process that involved overcoming a variety of conceptual and technological hurdles. Descriptive mycology and the advent of chemical plant-disease management have been followed by biochemical and physiological studies of fungi and their hosts. The later establishment of biochemical genetics along with the introduction of DNA-mediated transformation have set the stage for dissection of gene function and advances in our understanding of fungal cell biology and plant-fungus interactions. Currently, with the advent of high-throughput technologies, we have the capacity to acquire vast data sets that have direct relevance to the numerous subdisciplines within fungal biology and pathology. These data provide unique opportunities for basic research and for engineering solutions to important agricultural problems. However, we also are faced with the challenge of data organization and mining to analyze the relationships between fungal and plant genomes and to elucidate the physiological function of pertinent DNA sequences. We present our perspective of fungal biology and agriculture, including administrative and political challenges to plant protection research.

  14. Occupational agriculture organic dust exposure and its relationship to asthma and airway inflammation in adults.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wunschel, Javen; Poole, Jill A

    2016-06-01

    Recent studies have made advances into understanding the complex agriculture work exposure environment in influencing asthma in adults. The objective of this study is to review studies of occupational agricultural exposures including dust, animal, and pesticide exposures with asthma in adult populations. PubMed databases were searched for articles pertaining to farming, agriculture, asthma, occupational asthma, airway inflammation, respiratory disease, lung disease, pesticides, and organic dust. Studies chosen were published in or after 1999 that included adults and asthma and farming/agricultural work or agricultural exposures and airway inflammatory disease measurements. The data remain inconclusive. Several retrospective studies demonstrate agricultural work to be protective against asthma in adults, especially with increased farming exposure over time. In contrast, other studies find increased risk of asthma with farming exposures, especially for the non-atopic adult. Mechanistic and genetic studies have focused on defining the wide variety and abundance of microorganisms within these complex organic dusts that trigger several pattern recognition receptor pathways to modulate the hosts' response. Asthma risk depends on the interplay of genetic factors, gender, atopic predisposition, type of livestock, pesticide exposure, and magnitude and duration of exposure in the adult subject. Longer exposure to occupational farming is associated with decreased asthma risk. However, studies also suggest that agricultural work and multiple types of livestock are independent risk factors for developing asthma. Prospective and longitudinal studies focusing on genetic polymorphisms, objective assessments, and environmental sampling are needed to further delineate the influence of agriculture exposure in the adult worker.

  15. African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development. ... and African public institutions working towards solving food and nutrition problems through sound policies, ... Ecosystems Division, United Nations Environment Programme.

  16. Research on an Agricultural Knowledge Fusion Method for Big Data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nengfu Xie

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available The object of our research is to develop an ontology-based agricultural knowledge fusion method that can be used as a comprehensive basis on which to solve agricultural information inconsistencies, analyze data, and discover new knowledge. A recent survey has provided a detailed comparison of various fusion methods used with Deep Web data (Li, 2013. In this paper, we propose an effective agricultural ontology-based knowledge fusion method by leveraging recent advances in data fusion, such as the semantic web and big data technologies, that will enhance the identification and fusion of new and existing data sets to make big data analytics more possible. We provide a detailed fusion method that includes agricultural ontology building, fusion rule construction, an evaluation module, etc. Empirical results show that this knowledge fusion method is useful for knowledge discovery.

  17. The Agricultural Teacher's Struggle for Balance between Career and Family

    Science.gov (United States)

    Murray, Kathryn; Flowers, Jim; Croom, Barry; Wilson, Beth

    2011-01-01

    Research has shown that agricultural education graduates are hesitant to enter the profession and seemingly quick to leave, often citing long work hours as a main contributing factor. As the shortage of agricultural teachers continues, there is concern over the balance of career and family and its effect on the profession. The purpose of this…

  18. The Effect of No Agricultural Productivity Growth on Future Land Use and Climate through Biogeophysical Mechanisms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davies-Barnard, T.; Valdes, P. J.; Singarayer, J. S.; Jones, C.

    2012-12-01

    Future land use and the consequent land cover change will have a significant impact on future climate through biogeophysical (albedo, surface roughness and latent heat transfer, etc.) as well as biogeochemical (greenhouse gas emissions etc.) mechanisms. One of the major determinants of the extent of land use induced land cover change is the agricultural productivity growth within the socio-economic models used for developing the RCP scenarios. There are considerable uncertainties in the size of agricultural productivity under climate change, as yields are projected to vary spatially in signal and strength. Previous climate modeling work has considered the impacts to the carbon cycle of different levels of agricultural productivity growth, but has failed to consider the biogeophysical effects of the land use induced land cover change on climate. Here we examine the climate impacts of the assumption of agricultural productivity growth and business as usual land use. The effects are considered through the biogeophysical land use induced land cover change, using the Hadley Centre climate model HadGEM2. The model simulations use the set biogeochemical climate forcing of the RCP 4.5 scenario, but the biogeophysical land use change specification is altered over a 100 year simulation. Simulations are run with combinations of no land use change; standard RCP 4.5 land use change; business as usual land use change; and zero agricultural productivity growth. The key effect of no agricultural productivity growth is that more cropland is required to feed the same population, necessitating cropland expansion. The expansion of cropland and consequent deforestation increases the albedo and gives an extensive cooling effect in the northern hemisphere (up to 2°C). Differences in global mean temperature between the zero agricultural productivity growth with business as usual land use change specified run and the standard RCP 4.5 run are -0.2°C by 2040 and -0.7°C by 2100. There is

  19. Wellbeing: causes and consequences of emotion regulation in work settings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zammuner, V L; Galli, C

    2005-10-01

    Emotion regulation processes are a crucial aspect of the working role in jobs which require employee-customer interactions: What kinds of regulation processes are activated, with what frequency, and what are their correlates and consequences are important aspects to consider because of their potential implications for the well-being of individuals. To investigate these issues, a set of studies was carried out with Italian workers (N=769) performing service jobs in different sectors. Job-related, socio-demographic, and individual psychological variables were taken into account. The results confirmed the hypothesis that in service job-roles emotional labour (EL) is a component whose negative and positive implications for employees' well-being need to be considered. Emotional labour, embedded in a net of relationships with such job variables as frequency and duration of client-interaction, can result in high psychological costs for service workers. In particular, surface acting regulation was found to have a personal cost, indexed by the burnout dimensions of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization.

  20. Effects of climate change on US agriculture; Les effets du changement climatique sur l'agriculture americaine

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Guillet, L

    2007-08-15

    The USA are a major producer of food and fiber products in the world. The US agriculture represents more than 25% of the world trades of wheat, corn, soy and cotton. The cultivated surfaces and the pasture lands represent 210 million Ha (17% of the US territory) and 300 million Ha (26% of the US territory), respectively. The agricultural production represents less than 2% of the US GDP, put the agriculture products make about 5% of the US exports. The climate change may have some impacts on the overall agriculture industry, from the plant growth to the conditions of competition on international markets. In 2001, the US global change research program, published an evaluation report about the potential consequences of the climate change on the US agriculture. The conclusions of the panel of experts, based on climate, cultivation and economical models, was that the CO{sub 2} levels and climate changes of the 21. century would have no negative impact on the US agriculture. The average effects, on the contrary, would be rather positive, depending on the type of culture and on the region considered. Today, the experts have entertained lot of doubts about the 2001 forecasts: the fertilizing effect of CO{sub 2} is more and more criticized and an efficient supply of water appears as seriously compromised for many regions. Experts stress also on the lack of consideration for extreme climatic events, and for crop vermin and diseases. This document reanalyzes the conclusions of the 2001 report in the light of the works carried out more recently at the Agriculture Research Service (ARS). The proceedings of expert's interviews are attached in appendixes. (J.S.)

  1. Variation in organophosphate pesticide metabolites in urine of children living in agricultural communities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lambert, William E; Lasarev, Michael; Muniz, Juan; Scherer, Jennifer; Rothlein, Joan; Santana, Juanita; McCauley, Linda

    2005-04-01

    Children of migrant farmworkers are at increased risk of exposure to organophosphate pesticides because of "carry-home" transport processes and residential location. Although this at-risk status is generally recognized, few available reports describe the extent of this exposure among agricultural communities. We quantified dialkyl phosphate (DAP) levels in serial samples of urine from 176 children, 2-6 years of age, in three Oregon communities hosting differing agricultural industries: pears, cherries, and fruit berries. Up to three spot samples of urine were collected from children at the beginning, mid-point, and end of their parents' work seasons. The median levels of dimethylthiophosphate (DMTP), the most commonly detected metabolite, was significantly higher in urine samples from children in each of the three agricultural communities (17.5, 19.0, and 41.0 ng/mL) relative to a reference group of children who lived in an urban community and whose parents did not work in agriculture (6.5 ng/mL; Kruskal-Wallis, p orchards and fields, or the movement of these working families. Additional studies of variation in pesticide exposure across agricultural regions are needed.

  2. Agriculture

    Science.gov (United States)

    The EPA Agriculture Resource Directory offers comprehensive, easy-to-understand information about environmental stewardship on farms and ranches; commonsense, flexible approaches that are both environmentally protective and agriculturally sound.

  3. Interdependence of Agricultural Production and Environment and the Road to Sustainable Development

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Curić Jasmina

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Sustainability of agricultural production in the world is in serious crisis. Interdependence of agricultural production and the environment is multiple and causality works both ways. On one hand, there are environmental changes which hamper food production, and on the other, the agricultural production, as it is, is severely damaging the environment. The very systems of agricultural production jeopardize future production. The goal of this paper is to explore causes of limitations of sustainable agricultural development in the world, where the authors emphasize the following: gas emissions with greenhouse effect, a disturbed cycle of nitrogen circulation and destruction of biodiversity.

  4. Total and domain-specific sitting time among employees in desk-based work settings in Australia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bennie, Jason A; Pedisic, Zeljko; Timperio, Anna; Crawford, David; Dunstan, David; Bauman, Adrian; van Uffelen, Jannique; Salmon, Jo

    2015-06-01

    To describe the total and domain-specific daily sitting time among a sample of Australian office-based employees. In April 2010, paper-based surveys were provided to desk-based employees (n=801) in Victoria, Australia. Total daily and domain-specific (work, leisure-time and transport-related) sitting time (minutes/day) were assessed by validated questionnaires. Differences in sitting time were examined across socio-demographic (age, sex, occupational status) and lifestyle characteristics (physical activity levels, body mass index [BMI]) using multiple linear regression analyses. The median (95% confidence interval [CI]) of total daily sitting time was 540 (531-557) minutes/day. Insufficiently active adults (median=578 minutes/day, [95%CI: 564-602]), younger adults aged 18-29 years (median=561 minutes/day, [95%CI: 540-577]) reported the highest total daily sitting times. Occupational sitting time accounted for almost 60% of total daily sitting time. In multivariate analyses, total daily sitting time was negatively associated with age (unstandardised regression coefficient [B]=-1.58, pphysical activity (minutes/week) (B=-0.03, pemployees reported that more than half of their total daily sitting time was accrued in the work setting. Given the high contribution of occupational sitting to total daily sitting time among desk-based employees, interventions should focus on the work setting. © 2014 Public Health Association of Australia.

  5. Landsat and agriculture—Case studies on the uses and benefits of Landsat imagery in agricultural monitoring and production

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leslie, Colin R.; Serbina, Larisa O.; Miller, Holly M.

    2017-03-29

    Executive SummaryThe use of Landsat satellite imagery for global agricultural monitoring began almost immediately after the launch of Landsat 1 in 1972, making agricultural monitoring one of the longest-standing operational applications for the Landsat program. More recently, Landsat imagery has been used in domestic agricultural applications as an input for field-level production management. The enactment of the U.S. Geological Survey’s free and open data policy in 2008 and the launch of Landsat 8 in 2013 have both influenced agricultural applications. This report presents two primary sets of case studies on the applications and benefits of Landsat imagery use in agriculture. The first set examines several operational applications within the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the second focuses on private sector applications for agronomic management.  Information on the USDA applications is provided in the U.S. Department of Agriculture Uses of Landsat Imagery for Global and Domestic Agricultural Monitoring section of the report in the following subsections:Estimating Crop Production.—Provides an overview of how Landsat satellite imagery is used to estimate crop production, including the spectral bands most frequently utilized in this application.Monitoring Consumptive Water Use.—Highlights the role of Landsat imagery in monitoring consumptive water use for agricultural production. Globally, a significant amount of agricultural production relies on irrigation, so monitoring water resources is a critical component of agricultural monitoring. National Agricultural Statistics Service—Cropland Data Layer.—Highlights the use of Landsat imagery in developing the annual Cropland Data Layer, a crop-specific land cover classification product that provides information on more than 100 crop categories grown in the United States. Foreign Agricultural Service—Global Agricultural Monitoring.—Highlights Landsat’s role in monitoring global agricultural

  6. Agricultural Research Department annual report 1983

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1984-03-01

    A description is given of the work in the Agricultural Research Department of Risoe National Laboratory. The description is given under the headings a) plant breeding research, and b) energy consumption in plant cultivation. A list of staff members and of publications is also given. (BP)

  7. 77 FR 12723 - Labor Certification Process for the Temporary Employment of Aliens in Agriculture in the United...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-03-02

    ... the Temporary Employment of Aliens in Agriculture in the United States; Announcement of Non- Material... reasons in great detail in the preamble of the ``Temporary Agricultural Employment of H-2A Aliens in the... set the AEWR. See ``Temporary Agricultural Employment of H-2A Aliens in the United States; Modernizing...

  8. SUSTAINABLE FARMS: INTEGRATION OF AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Manolo Muñoz-Espinosa

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available The inappropriate use of agrochemicals and technologies in farming systems can cause an accelerated deterioration of agricultural and soil pollution. Thus, agriculture and livestock are becoming an environmental problem in the world, which implies the need to assess the efficiency of agricultural production systems related to sustainability. The traditional peasant system is apparently unsustainable, while farm with an integral production approach have better opportunities for development over time as they tend to sustainability. This type of farms incorporate productive alternatives that improve as a whole, the system and the livelihood of the peasants. The trends towards sustainability of farms are mainly due to a better land use. As well as, implementing systems adapted to each soil and production type to ensure profitability and persistence, achieving the highest possible agricultural productivity. The urgency to produce food for a growing population is almost a paradigm that reinforces the imperative for maximum yield per unit area, and creates a vision of the rural world aimed at increasing profit at the expense of the attributes and core values of livelihood in rural areas. It can be concluded that the integrated farming articulate various subsystems, which working together could allow higher sustainability of agricultural production practices, environmentally friendly, safeguarding the food sovereignty of the population and improving the quality of life of farmers

  9. Agricultural Overpopulation

    OpenAIRE

    Bičanić, Rudolf

    2003-01-01

    The author discusses three different approaches to agricultural overpopulation: from the consumption side, from the production side and from the aspect of immobility of agricultural population. In the first approach agrarian overpopulation is defined from the consumption point of viewas the number of people living from agriculture that can live from aggregate agricultural income at a certain standard of consumption. In this connection the problem of measuring total agricultu...

  10. Nitrogen fluxes through unsaturated zones in five agricultural settings across the United States

    Science.gov (United States)

    Green, C.T.; Fisher, L.H.; Bekins, B.A.

    2008-01-01

    The main physical and chemical controls on nitrogen (N) fluxes between the root zone and the water table were determined for agricultural sites in California, Indiana, Maryland, Nebraska, and Washington from 2004 to 2005. Sites included irrigated and nonirrigated fields; soil textures ranging from clay to sand; crops including corn, soybeans, almonds, and pasture; and unsaturated zone thicknesses ranging from 1 to 22 m. Chemical analyses of water from lysimeters and shallow wells indicate that advective transport of nitrate is the dominant process affecting the flux of N below the root zone. Vertical profiles of (i) nitrogen species, (ii) stable isotopes of nitrogen and oxygen, and (iii) oxygen, N, and argon in unsaturated zone air and correlations between N and other agricultural chemicals indicate that reactions do not greatly affect N concentrations between the root zone and the capillary fringe. As a result, physical factors, such as N application rate, water inputs, and evapotranspiration, control the differences in concentrations among the sites. Concentrations of N in shallow lysimeters exhibit seasonal variation, whereas concentrations in lysimeters deeper than a few meters are relatively stable. Based on concentration and recharge estimates, fluxes of N through the deep unsaturated zone range from 7 to 99 kg ha-1 yr-1. Vertical fluxes of N in ground water are lower due to spatial and historical changes in N inputs. High N fluxes are associated with coarse sediments and high N application rates. Copyright ?? 2008 by the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America. All rights reserved.

  11. Facets of job satisfaction of dental practitioners working in different organisational settings in England.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harris, R V; Ashcroft, A; Burnside, G; Dancer, J M; Smith, D; Grieveson, B

    2008-01-12

    Before April 2006, English dentists were either working as an NHS general dental service (GDS) practitioner (fee-per-item, no local contractual obligations); an NHS personal dental service (PDS) practitioner (block contract with the primary care trust (PCT)); a private practitioner (either fee-per-item or capitation-based, independent of the PCT); or in a situation where they were mixing their NHS work (either under the GDS or PDS arrangements) with private work. To a) investigate the extent of the mix of NHS and private work in English dentists working in the GDS and PDS, b) to compare global job satisfaction, and c) to compare facets of job satisfaction for practitioners working in the different organisational settings of PDS practices, GDS practices and practices where there is a mix of NHS and private provision. Method A questionnaire was sent to 684 practitioners, containing 83 attitudinal statements relating to job facets, a global job satisfaction score and questions concerning workload. Response rate was 65.2%. More PDS than GDS dentists were found to treat the majority of their patients under the NHS. GDS dentists working fully in the NHS were least likely to be satisfied with their job, followed by PDS practitioners and then GDS dentists working in mixed NHS/private practices. Private practitioners were the most satisfied. Differences between GDS, PDS and private practitioners were found in global job satisfaction and in the facets of job satisfaction related to restriction in being able to provide quality care, control of work and developing clinical skills.

  12. Developing Metrics for Effective Teaching in Agricultural Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lawver, Rebecca G.; McKim, Billy R.; Smith, Amy R.; Aschenbrener, Mollie S.; Enns, Kellie

    2016-01-01

    Research on effective teaching has been conducted in a variety of settings for more than 40 years. This study offers direction for future effective teaching research in secondary agricultural education and has implications for career and technical education. Specifically, 142 items consisting of characteristics, behaviors, and/or techniques…

  13. Agricultural production in the United States by county: a compilation of information from the 1974 census of agriculture for use in terrestrial food-chain transport and assessment models

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Shor, R.W.; Baes, C.F. III; Sharp, R.D.

    1982-01-01

    Terrestrial food-chain models that simulate the transport of environmentally released radionuclides incorporate parameters describing agricultural production and practice. Often a single set of default parameters, such as that listed in USNRC Regulatory Guide 1.109, is used in lieu of site-specific information. However, the geographical diversity of agricultural practice in the United States suggests the limitations of a single set of default parameters for assessment models. This report documents default parameters with a county-wide resolution based on analysis of the 1974 US Census of Agriculture for use in terrestrial food chain models. Data reported by county, together with state-based information from the US Department of Agriculture, Economic and Statistics Service, provided the basis for estimates of model input parameters. This report also describes these data bases, their limitations, and lists default parameters by county. Vegetable production is described for four categories: leafy vegetables; vegetables and fruits exposed to airborne material; vegetables, fruits, and nuts protected from airborne materials; and grains. Livestock feeds were analyzed in categories of hay, silage, pasture, and grains. Pasture consumption was estimated from cattle and sheep inventories, their feed requirements, and reported quantities of harvested forage. The results were compared with assumed yields of the pasture areas reported. In addition, non-vegetable food production estimates including milk, beef, pork, lamb, poultry, eggs, goat milk, and honey are described. The agricultural parameters and land use information - in all 47 items - are tabulated in four appendices for each of the 3067 counties of the US reported to the Census of Agriculture, excluding those in Hawaii and Alaska.

  14. Agricultural production in the United States by county: a compilation of information from the 1974 census of agriculture for use in terrestrial food-chain transport and assessment models

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shor, R.W.; Baes, C.F. III; Sharp, R.D.

    1982-01-01

    Terrestrial food-chain models that simulate the transport of environmentally released radionuclides incorporate parameters describing agricultural production and practice. Often a single set of default parameters, such as that listed in USNRC Regulatory Guide 1.109, is used in lieu of site-specific information. However, the geographical diversity of agricultural practice in the United States suggests the limitations of a single set of default parameters for assessment models. This report documents default parameters with a county-wide resolution based on analysis of the 1974 US Census of Agriculture for use in terrestrial food chain models. Data reported by county, together with state-based information from the US Department of Agriculture, Economic and Statistics Service, provided the basis for estimates of model input parameters. This report also describes these data bases, their limitations, and lists default parameters by county. Vegetable production is described for four categories: leafy vegetables; vegetables and fruits exposed to airborne material; vegetables, fruits, and nuts protected from airborne materials; and grains. Livestock feeds were analyzed in categories of hay, silage, pasture, and grains. Pasture consumption was estimated from cattle and sheep inventories, their feed requirements, and reported quantities of harvested forage. The results were compared with assumed yields of the pasture areas reported. In addition, non-vegetable food production estimates including milk, beef, pork, lamb, poultry, eggs, goat milk, and honey are described. The agricultural parameters and land use information - in all 47 items - are tabulated in four appendices for each of the 3067 counties of the US reported to the Census of Agriculture, excluding those in Hawaii and Alaska

  15. Service network analysis for agricultural mental health

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fuller Jeffrey D

    2009-05-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Farmers represent a subgroup of rural and remote communities at higher risk of suicide attributed to insecure economic futures, self-reliant cultures and poor access to health services. Early intervention models are required that tap into existing farming networks. This study describes service networks in rural shires that relate to the mental health needs of farming families. This serves as a baseline to inform service network improvements. Methods A network survey of mental health related links between agricultural support, health and other human services in four drought declared shires in comparable districts in rural New South Wales, Australia. Mental health links covered information exchange, referral recommendations and program development. Results 87 agencies from 111 (78% completed a survey. 79% indicated that two thirds of their clients needed assistance for mental health related problems. The highest mean number of interagency links concerned information exchange and the frequency of these links between sectors was monthly to three monthly. The effectiveness of agricultural support and health sector links were rated as less effective by the agricultural support sector than by the health sector (p Conclusion Aligning with agricultural agencies is important to build effective mental health service pathways to address the needs of farming populations. Work is required to ensure that these agricultural support agencies have operational and effective links to primary mental health care services. Network analysis provides a baseline to inform this work. With interventions such as local mental health training and joint service planning to promote network development we would expect to see over time an increase in the mean number of links, the frequency in which these links are used and the rated effectiveness of these links.

  16. Does Agricultural Mechanics Laboratory Size Affect Agricultural Education Teachers' Job Satisfaction?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Byrd, Alex Preston; Anderson, Ryan G.; Paulsen, Thomas H.

    2015-01-01

    Secondary agricultural education teachers were surveyed to examine if a relationship existed between the physical attributes of agricultural mechanics laboratories and agricultural education teachers' enjoyment of teaching agricultural mechanics. Teachers also indicated their competence to teach courses other than agricultural mechanics within the…

  17. Room for Sustainable Agriculture. Part 1 Advice. Part 2 Analysis

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2013-03-15

    An outline is given of the social dilemmas associated with agriculture and horticulture in the Netherlands. Ongoing innovation and accelerated sustainable development are essential to resolve these dilemmas. Given the importance of the Dutch agriculture and horticulture sector, there is every reason for the central government to play its part and help remove the obstacles to the continuing sustainable development of the sector. The Council recommends that the central government continues developing the Council's vision for agriculture and horticulture with the parties concerned, allows scope for the development of different agricultural business models, applies knowledge and innovation as drivers of continuing sustainable development, amends laws and regulations as necessary, and facilitates a permanent dialogue between the sector and society. The advisory report also sets out the Council's vision concerning the political and public debate on agriculture and horticulture. This debate is most clearly characterised by major and seemingly insurmountable differences of opinion. The Council hopes that its report will induce a shift in thinking about Dutch agriculture among politicians and society at large, so that the transitions considered necessary by the Council can be implemented more rapidly.

  18. Room for Sustainable Agriculture. Part 1 Advice. Part 2 Analysis

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2013-03-15

    An outline is given of the social dilemmas associated with agriculture and horticulture in the Netherlands. Ongoing innovation and accelerated sustainable development are essential to resolve these dilemmas. Given the importance of the Dutch agriculture and horticulture sector, there is every reason for the central government to play its part and help remove the obstacles to the continuing sustainable development of the sector. The Council recommends that the central government continues developing the Council's vision for agriculture and horticulture with the parties concerned, allows scope for the development of different agricultural business models, applies knowledge and innovation as drivers of continuing sustainable development, amends laws and regulations as necessary, and facilitates a permanent dialogue between the sector and society. The advisory report also sets out the Council's vision concerning the political and public debate on agriculture and horticulture. This debate is most clearly characterised by major and seemingly insurmountable differences of opinion. The Council hopes that its report will induce a shift in thinking about Dutch agriculture among politicians and society at large, so that the transitions considered necessary by the Council can be implemented more rapidly.

  19. Sets in Coq, Coq in Sets

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bruno Barras

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available This work is about formalizing models of various type theories of the Calculus of Constructions family. Here we focus on set theoretical models. The long-term goal is to build a formal set theoretical model of the Calculus of Inductive Constructions, so we can be sure that Coq is consistent with the language used by most mathematicians.One aspect of this work is to axiomatize several set theories: ZF possibly with inaccessible cardinals, and HF, the theory of hereditarily finite sets. On top of these theories we have developped a piece of the usual set theoretical construction of functions, ordinals and fixpoint theory. We then proved sound several models of the Calculus of Constructions, its extension with an infinite hierarchy of universes, and its extension with the inductive type of natural numbers where recursion follows the type-based termination approach.The other aspect is to try and discharge (most of these assumptions. The goal here is rather to compare the theoretical strengths of all these formalisms. As already noticed by Werner, the replacement axiom of ZF in its general form seems to require a type-theoretical axiom of choice (TTAC.

  20. Energy conservation in agriculture sector

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Maggo, J.N.

    1991-01-01

    The annual production of foodgrains in India rose from 50.8 million tonnes in 1950-51 to 178 million tonnes in 1989-90. One of the factors which led to this impressive growth is the continued increase in input of mechanization and energy in the agricultural sector by way of tractors running on diesel and pumps (for water supply) based on diesel and electricity. Electricity consumption in agricultural sector rose from 833 million kWh in 1960-61 to 47000 million kWh in 1990-91 and is further expected to rise to 81.8 TWH in 1999-2000. Considering the heavy investments required for production and supply of energy, it has become imperative to avoid wasteful use of energy and to use energy more efficiently. This can be done by : (1) Changing the electricity tariff structure from the present horse power related rates to energy consumption related rates. This will induce farmers to avoid waste in energy use. (2) Adopting energy efficiency measures. These measures are : (1) replacement of inefficient foot valves, suction pipes and delivery pipes of the pump sets, (2) increasing power factor of electric motors used for pumps sets, (3) reducing distribution losses over LT lines, and (4) optimizing use of fertilizers. This optimization will indirectly conserve energy by reducing electricity consumption by fertilizer industry. (M.G.B.). 5 refs., 4 tabs

  1. Attitudes of students at College of Food and Agricultural Sciences toward agriculture

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohammed Saleh Shenaifi

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available The primary purpose of the study was to determine the attitudes of students at the College of Agriculture toward agriculture programs and the field of agriculture in an effort to better identify, recruit, and retain students in the College of Agriculture. The population of the study was 110 students from the College of Agriculture freshmen enrolling in course 203 Ag. ext. Communication skills in 2009 and 60 students who transferred from the College of Agriculture to another College. Questionnaire was reviewed for content and face validity by a panel of experts from the department of Agricultural Extension at the College of Agriculture, King Saud University. A five-point Likert-type scale was used. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was found to be 0.89, which indicated the internal consistency of the scale. Ninety-six of the students were from cities and do not have a farm background. Many of them indicated that they were not happy in the College of Agriculture. Only 31.18% of the respondents (53 indicated that more students should be encouraged to enroll in the College of Agriculture, whereas nearly 69 disagreed or were uncertain. The attitudes of students toward the field of Agriculture were positive. Seventy-one of respondents viewed Agriculture as a scientific area of study, nearly 66% of respondents viewed the field of Agriculture as a blend of scientific principles and agricultural practices. Significant differences at the level of 0.01 were detected, in means of students who had been enrolled in Agricultural program and those students who had not. Students who had enrolled in Agriculture program displayed different attitudes toward the field of Agriculture than did students who were in non-Agriculture program. Generally, students who were studying Agriculture programs possessed attitudes, which were supportive of Agriculture as a career field. Freshmen of the College of Agriculture viewed agriculture as being both scientific and technical. It

  2. Study on Web-Based Tool for Regional Agriculture Industry Structure Optimization Using Ajax

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Xiaodong; Zhu, Yeping

    According to the research status of regional agriculture industry structure adjustment information system and the current development of information technology, this paper takes web-based regional agriculture industry structure optimization tool as research target. This paper introduces Ajax technology and related application frameworks to build an auxiliary toolkit of decision support system for agricultural policy maker and economy researcher. The toolkit includes a “one page” style component of regional agriculture industry structure optimization which provides agile arguments setting method that enables applying sensitivity analysis and usage of data and comparative advantage analysis result, and a component that can solve the linear programming model and its dual problem by simplex method.

  3. Time utilization and perceived psychosocial work environment among staff in Swedish primary care settings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anskär, Eva; Lindberg, Malou; Falk, Magnus; Andersson, Agneta

    2018-03-07

    Over the past decades, reorganizations and structural changes in Swedish primary care have affected time utilization among health care professionals. Consequently, increases in administrative tasks have substantially reduced the time available for face-to-face consultations. This study examined how work-time was utilized and the association between work time utilization and the perceived psychosocial work environment in Swedish primary care settings. This descriptive, multicentre, cross-sectional study was performed in 2014-2015. Data collection began with questionnaire. In the first section, respondents were asked to estimate how their workload was distributed between patients (direct and indirect patient work) and other work tasks. The questionnaire also comprised the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire, which assessed the psychosocial work environment. Next a time study was conducted where the participants reported their work-time based on three main categories: direct patient-related work, indirect patient-related work, and other work tasks. Each main category had a number of subcategories. The participants recorded the time spent (minutes) on each work task per hour, every day, for two separate weeks. Eleven primary care centres located in southeast Sweden participated. All professionals were asked to participate (n = 441), including registered nurses, primary care physicians, care administrators, nurse assistants, and allied professionals. Response rates were 75% and 79% for the questionnaires and the time study, respectively. All health professionals allocated between 30.9% - 37.2% of their work-time to each main category: direct patient work, indirect patient work, and other work. All professionals estimated a higher proportion of time spent in direct patient work than they reported in the time study. Physicians scored highest on the psychosocial scales of quantitative demands, stress, and role conflicts. Among allied professionals, the proportion of

  4. CONCEPTUAL MODEL OF INFORMATION SYSTEM OF THE AGRICULTURAL ENTERPRISES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Uladzimir Buts

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available Abstract. Research subject represented by the theoretical and practical issues use of information resources in the agricultural business. Research aim is to formation of a conceptual model of information system of agricultural enterprises according to the requirements of sustainable development. Research methods. The work is prepared on basis of several scientific methods and approaches including monographic, analytical, computational and constructive methods of mathematical and structural logic simulation of information systems. Research results. Based on the assessment of the results of research information systems in agribusiness, as reflected in the theoretical review, the author designed principles of the information system for the agricultural enterprise for sustainable development of agribusiness. Sphere of application of the research results. State and regional authorities of economic regulation. Agricultural enterprises and farmers.

  5. Compliance with NAGCAT work practices recommendations for youth cleaning service alleys in stall barns.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Canan, B D; Asti, L; Heaney, C; Ashida, S; Renick, K; Xiang, H; Stallones, L; Jepsen, S D; Crawford, J M; Wilkins, J R

    2011-04-01

    Unintentional injury is the leading cause of death in the U.S. among persons 1 to 44 years of age. Over one million children and adolescents in the U.S. live, work, and/or play on farms, where injury risk is relatively high compared to other settings. In an attempt to reduce the number of childhood agricultural injuries occurring on farms, the North American Guidelines for Children's Agricultural Tasks (NAGCAT) was developed to assist parents or other caregivers in assigning developmentally appropriate chores to youth exposed to agricultural hazards. The results presented here are from a longitudinal study in which we obtained (self-reported) daily chore, injury, and safety behavior data from children and adolescents. We focused on one NAGCAT chore, cleaning a service alley in a stall barn, in order to estimate the extent of compliance with specific work practice recommendations contained in the NAGCAT. Our results indicated that among the four NAGCAT-recommended safety practices for cleaning service alleys in stall barns (wearing nonskid shoes, leather gloves, a respirator, and eye protection), wearing non-skid shoes was the only safety practice reported with any degree of regularity. Overall, boys were more likely to wear non-skid shoes compared to girls. In addition, older youth were generally more likely to report higher work practice compliance compared to younger youth.

  6. Information about the CENA: Agriculture Nuclear Energy Center

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1982-10-01

    The purposes of the CENA-Brazil is described in this paper such as to develop and absorb techniques and nuclear methods of research interest and agricultural applications; to spread the methods and techniques through the courses, scientific exchange and publications; to develop in permanent character, researches, studies and works of nuclear energy application in agricultural problems and transfer the technology to the public; cooperation programs with the others units and USP-Sao Paulo University in graduation and post-graduation courses. (L.M.J.)

  7. Assets. Biological Assets. The Seasonal Model in Agriculture

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Atanasiu Pop

    2008-07-01

    Full Text Available In order to support the agricultural exploitation we tried in this paper to develop a model that involves a seasonal component at entity’s level. Consequently, we made a study to an exploitation acting in the vegetal field by collecting accounting informations from the data base entity and by informations that were processed using different statistical functions. So, through the proposed model we try to make certain previsions taking into account the economic situation in which the agricultural exploitation works.

  8. Moving beyond entrepreneurial skills: key factors driving entrepreneurial learning in multifunctional agriculture

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Seuneke, P.L.M.; Lans, T.; Wiskerke, J.S.C.

    2013-01-01

    It is widely acknowledged that, next to sound craftsmanship and management, farmers increasingly need entrepreneurship if they are to survive in modern agriculture. This is reflected by an increasing number of studies focusing on entrepreneurship in agriculture. While much work in this comprehensive

  9. Empowering African women and communities through agriculture ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    2011-11-23

    Nov 23, 2011 ... Njuki is rewriting the rule book on how agricultural research is done throughout Africa, drawing on her work on the impacts of livestock and market interventions. With support from ... A new era for gender research. Jemimah ...

  10. Holistic Sustainability Assessment of Agricultural Rainwater Harvesting

    Science.gov (United States)

    We present a methodology for holistic sustainability assessment of green infrastructure, applied to agricultural rainwater harvesting (RWH) in the Albemarle-Pamlico river basin. It builds upon prior work in the region through the use of detailed, crop-level management information...

  11. Application of fuzzy inference system to increase efficiency of management decision-making in agricultural enterprises

    OpenAIRE

    Balanovskаya, Tetiana Ivanovna; Boretska, Zoreslava Petrovna

    2014-01-01

    Application of fuzzy inference system to increase efficiency of management decision- making in agricultural enterprises. Theoretical and methodological issues, practical recommendations on improvement of management decision-making in agricultural enterprises to increase their competitiveness have been intensified and developed in the article. A simulation example of a quality management system for agricultural products on the basis of the theory of fuzzy sets and fuzzy logic has been proposed...

  12. FACTOR ANALYSIS OF LABOR PRODUCTIVITY IN AGRICULTURE IN TERMS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Irina Elena PETRESCU

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available This paper represents an analysis of the level of labor productivity in agriculture for each development region of Romania. Labor productivity in agriculture was analyzed by two parameters, namely: the value of agricultural production and the number of employees in agriculture for the period 2011 – 2012. The level of labor productivity is influenced by the quality of biological and bio-capacity of plants and animals as well, as well as the equipment and quality of work performed. From the factorial analysis it can be noticed a decrease of labor productivity caused by a decrease in the value of agricultural production.

  13. Energy-Efficient Wireless Sensor Networks for Precision Agriculture: A Review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jawad, Haider Mahmood; Nordin, Rosdiadee; Gharghan, Sadik Kamel; Jawad, Aqeel Mahmood; Ismail, Mahamod

    2017-08-03

    Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) can be used in agriculture to provide farmers with a large amount of information. Precision agriculture (PA) is a management strategy that employs information technology to improve quality and production. Utilizing wireless sensor technologies and management tools can lead to a highly effective, green agriculture. Based on PA management, the same routine to a crop regardless of site environments can be avoided. From several perspectives, field management can improve PA, including the provision of adequate nutrients for crops and the wastage of pesticides for the effective control of weeds, pests, and diseases. This review outlines the recent applications of WSNs in agriculture research as well as classifies and compares various wireless communication protocols, the taxonomy of energy-efficient and energy harvesting techniques for WSNs that can be used in agricultural monitoring systems, and comparison between early research works on agriculture-based WSNs. The challenges and limitations of WSNs in the agricultural domain are explored, and several power reduction and agricultural management techniques for long-term monitoring are highlighted. These approaches may also increase the number of opportunities for processing Internet of Things (IoT) data.

  14. In pursuit of change: Conceptualizing the social work response to LGBTQ microaggressions in health settings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kia, Hannah; MacKinnon, Kinnon Ross; Legge, Melissa Marie

    2016-01-01

    Despite the emergence of research on microaggressions targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ) communities in recent years, there remains an insufficiency of theoretical literature in this area. In this article, we draw on the works of Michel Foucault to conceptualize the effects of microaggressive practices on LGBTQ people accessing health and other social services, and generate insight into strategies these groups use to resist these effects. We emphasize the need for social workers, particularly those in health care settings, to support these communities' ongoing attempts at challenging the effects of microaggression, and to this end, outline several implications of our analysis for social work practice.

  15. Entrepreneurial competence in agriculture : characterization, identification, development and the role of the work environment

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Lans, T.

    2009-01-01

    In the last few decades, primary agricultural production in the Netherlands has been
    significantly influenced by firm expansion, innovation and diversification. These
    developments suggest that, increasingly, farmers and growers require entrepreneurial
    competence to continuously

  16. Water quality in the surficial aquifer near agricultural areas in the Delaware Coastal Plain, 2014

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fleming, Brandon J.; Mensch, Laura L.; Denver, Judith M.; Cruz, Roberto M.; Nardi, Mark R.

    2017-07-27

    The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Delaware Department of Agriculture, developed a network of wells to monitor groundwater quality in the surficial aquifer of the Delaware Coastal Plain. Well-drained soils, a flat landscape, and accessible water in the Delaware Coastal Plain make for a productive agricultural setting. As such, agriculture is one of the largest industries in the State of Delaware. This setting enables the transport of chemicals from agriculture and other land uses to shallow groundwater. Efforts to mitigate nutrient transport to groundwater by the implementation of agricultural best management practices (BMPs) have been ongoing for several decades. To measure the effectiveness of BMPs on a regional scale, a network of 48 wells was designed to measure shallow groundwater quality (particularly nitrate) over time near agricultural land in the Delaware Coastal Plain. Water characteristics, major ions, nutrients, and dissolved gases were measured in groundwater samples collected from network wells during fall 2014. Wells were organized into three groups based on their geochemical similarity and these groups were used to describe nitrate and chloride concentrations and factors that affect the variability among the groups. The results from this study are intended to establish waterquality conditions in 2014 to enable comparison of future conditions and evaluate the effectiveness of agricultural BMPs on a regional scale.

  17. A Modernized System for Agricultural Monitoring for Food Security in Tanzania

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dempewolf, J.; Nakalembe, C. L.; Becker-Reshef, I.; Justice, C. J.; Tumbo, S.; Mbilinyi, B.; Maurice, S.; Mtalo, M.

    2016-12-01

    Accurate and timely information on agriculture, particularly in many countries dominated by complex smallholder, subsistence agricultural systems is often difficult to obtain or not available. This includes up-to-date information during the growing season on crop type, crop area and crop condition such as developmental stage, damage from pests and diseases, drought or flooding. These data are critical for government decision making on production forecasts, planning for commodity market transactions, food aid delivery, responding to disease outbreaks and for implementing agricultural extension and development efforts. In Tanzania we have been working closely with the National Food Security Division (NFSD) at the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries (MALF) on designing and implementing an advanced agricultural monitoring system, utilizing satellite remote sensing, smart phone and internet technologies. Together with our local implementing partner, the Sokoine University of Agriculture we trained a large number of agricultural extension agents in different regions of Tanzania to deliver field data in near-realtime. Using our collaborative internet portal (Crop Monitor) the team of analysts compiles pertinent information on current crop and weather conditions from throughout the country in a standardized, consistent manner. Using the portal traditionally collected data are combined with electronically collected field data and MODIS satellite image time series from GLAM East-Africa (Global Agricultural Monitoring System, customized for stakeholders in East Africa). The main outcome of this work has been the compilation of the National Food Security Bulletin for Tanzania with plans for a public release and the intention for it to become the main avenue to dispense current updates and analysis on agriculture in the country. The same information is also a potential contribution to the international Early Warning Crop Monitor, which currently covers Tanzania

  18. Mapping Sub-Saharan African Agriculture in High-Resolution Satellite Imagery with Computer Vision & Machine Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Debats, Stephanie Renee

    Smallholder farms dominate in many parts of the world, including Sub-Saharan Africa. These systems are characterized by small, heterogeneous, and often indistinct field patterns, requiring a specialized methodology to map agricultural landcover. In this thesis, we developed a benchmark labeled data set of high-resolution satellite imagery of agricultural fields in South Africa. We presented a new approach to mapping agricultural fields, based on efficient extraction of a vast set of simple, highly correlated, and interdependent features, followed by a random forest classifier. The algorithm achieved similar high performance across agricultural types, including spectrally indistinct smallholder fields, and demonstrated the ability to generalize across large geographic areas. In sensitivity analyses, we determined multi-temporal images provided greater performance gains than the addition of multi-spectral bands. We also demonstrated how active learning can be incorporated in the algorithm to create smaller, more efficient training data sets, which reduced computational resources, minimized the need for humans to hand-label data, and boosted performance. We designed a patch-based uncertainty metric to drive the active learning framework, based on the regular grid of a crowdsourcing platform, and demonstrated how subject matter experts can be replaced with fleets of crowdsourcing workers. Our active learning algorithm achieved similar performance as an algorithm trained with randomly selected data, but with 62% less data samples. This thesis furthers the goal of providing accurate agricultural landcover maps, at a scale that is relevant for the dominant smallholder class. Accurate maps are crucial for monitoring and promoting agricultural production. Furthermore, improved agricultural landcover maps will aid a host of other applications, including landcover change assessments, cadastral surveys to strengthen smallholder land rights, and constraints for crop modeling

  19. Ergonomics work assessment in rural industrial settings: a student occupational therapy project.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bowman, Peter J

    2012-01-01

    This case study describes a student occupational therapy (OT) program, the creation of a worksite assessment project as a part of a Community Connections: Partners for Learning and Service grant funded by Health Resources and Services Administration. The primary goals were to design occupation-based community learning experiences in a variety of rural community settings, so that students might benefit from participating in the community based learning and: based on the results, embed occupation-based learning into existing occupational therapy curriculum. The components of the project and the ergonomics content of the OT education program are described; details of the work assessment are presented with analysis of data from the student evaluation of this project.

  20. Information Communication Technologies (ICT) and Agriculture in ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The paper explores the role of information and communication technology in agricultural development in the 21st century. A definition of the scope of ICT is given to set the pace and it goes on to review the current array of ICT tools and devices. The functions of the various ICT tools are described. The needs of the various ...

  1. Agricultural Commodities and Crude Oil Prices: An Empirical Investigation of Their Relationship

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Eleni Zafeiriou

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available Within the last few decades, the extended use of biodiesel and bioethanol has established interlinkages between energy markets and agricultural commodity markets. The present work examines the bivariate relationships of crude oil–corn and crude oil–soybean futures prices with the assistance of the ARDL cointegration approach. Our findings confirm that crude oil prices affect the prices of agricultural products used in the production of biodiesel, as well as of ethanol, validating the interaction of energy and agricultural commodity markets. The practical value of the present work is that the findings provide policy makers with insight into the interlinkages between agricultural and energy markets to promote biodiesel or bioethanol by affecting crude oil prices. The novelty of the present work stands on the use of futures prices that incorporate all available information and thus are more appropriate to identify supply and demand shocks and price spillovers than real prices. Finally, the period of study includes extremely low, as well as extremely high, crude oil prices and the results illustrate that biofuels cannot be substituted for crude oil and protect economies from energy volatility.

  2. Assessing strategies to manage work and life balance of athletic trainers working in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I setting.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mazerolle, Stephanie M; Pitney, William A; Casa, Douglas J; Pagnotta, Kelly D

    2011-01-01

    Certified athletic trainers (ATs) working at the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I level experience challenges balancing their professional and personal lives. However, an understanding of the strategies ATs use to promote a balance between their professional and personal lives is lacking. To identify the strategies ATs employed in the Division I setting use to establish a balance between their professional and personal lives. Qualitative investigation using inductive content analysis. Athletic trainers employed at Division I schools from 5 National Athletic Trainers' Association districts. A total of 28 (15 women, 13 men) ATs aged 35 ± 9 years volunteered for the study. Asynchronous electronic interviews with follow-up phone interviews. Data were analyzed using inductive content analysis. Peer review, member checking, and data-source triangulation were conducted to establish trustworthiness. Three higher-order themes emerged from the analysis. The initial theme, antecedents of work-family conflict, focused on the demands of the profession, flexibility of work schedules, and staffing patterns as contributing to work-life conflict for this group of ATs. The other 2 emergent higher-order themes, professional factors and personal factors, describe the components of a balanced lifestyle. The second-order theme of constructing the professional factors included both organizational policies and individual strategies, whereas the second-order theme of personal factors was separation of work and life and a supportive personal network. Long work hours, lack of control over work schedules, and unbalanced athlete-to-AT ratios can facilitate conflicts. However, as demonstrated by our results, several organizational and personal strategies can be helpful in creating a balanced lifestyle.

  3. Cost Methodology for Biomass Feedstocks: Herbaceous Crops and Agricultural Residues

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Turhollow Jr, Anthony F [ORNL; Webb, Erin [ORNL; Sokhansanj, Shahabaddine [ORNL

    2009-12-01

    This report describes a set of procedures and assumptions used to estimate production and logistics costs of bioenergy feedstocks from herbaceous crops and agricultural residues. The engineering-economic analysis discussed here is based on methodologies developed by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) and the American Agricultural Economics Association (AAEA). An engineering-economic analysis approach was chosen due to lack of historical cost data for bioenergy feedstocks. Instead, costs are calculated using assumptions for equipment performance, input prices, and yield data derived from equipment manufacturers, research literature, and/or standards. Cost estimates account for fixed and variable costs. Several examples of this costing methodology used to estimate feedstock logistics costs are included at the end of this report.

  4. DEVELOPMENT OF THE AGRICULTURAL SECTOR FROM MOLDOVA THROUGH AGRICULTURE LOANS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aliona SARGO

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Financial institutions present on the market become more attentive when they have to give loans to the agriculture sector. The lack of necessary guarantees the low profit registered in agricultural district, economy instability and other things had and continue to have a negative impact on the evolution of agricultural sector, this being seen as one with a high level of risk. Commercial banks use less own funds for lending to agriculture and especially when the loans are guaranteed from various funds, programs or foreign donor agencies. Farmers find it difficult to bank loans because of collateral amount required is too high. However, commercial banks in Moldova provide agricultural loans, thus increasing the economic efficiency of agriculture.

  5. Practice settings and dentists' job satisfaction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lo Sasso, Anthony T; Starkel, Rebecca L; Warren, Matthew N; Guay, Albert H; Vujicic, Marko

    2015-08-01

    The nature and organization of dental practice is changing. The aim of this study was to explore how job satisfaction among dentists is associated with dental practice setting. A survey measured satisfaction with income, benefits, hours worked, clinical autonomy, work-life balance, emotional exhaustion, and overall satisfaction among dentists working in large group, small group, and solo practice settings; 2,171 dentists responded. The authors used logistic regression to measure differences in reported levels of satisfaction across practice settings. Dentists working in small group settings reported the most satisfaction overall. Dentists working in large group settings reported more satisfaction with income and benefits than dentists in solo practice, as well as having the least stress. Findings suggest possible advantages and disadvantages of working in different types of practice settings. Dentists working in different practice settings reported differences in satisfaction. These results may help dentists decide which practice setting is best for them. Copyright © 2015 American Dental Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  6. National, holistic, watershed-scale approach to understand the sources, transport, and fate of agricultural chemicals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Capel, P.D.; McCarthy, K.A.; Barbash, J.E.

    2008-01-01

    This paper is an introduction to the following series of papers that report on in-depth investigations that have been conducted at five agricultural study areas across the United States in order to gain insights into how environmental processes and agricultural practices interact to determine the transport and fate of agricultural chemicals in the environment. These are the first study areas in an ongoing national study. The study areas were selected, based on the combination of cropping patterns and hydrologic setting, as representative of nationally important agricultural settings to form a basis for extrapolation to unstudied areas. The holistic, watershed-scale study design that involves multiple environmental compartments and that employs both field observations and simulation modeling is presented. This paper introduces the overall study design and presents an overview of the hydrology of the five study areas. Copyright ?? 2008 by the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America. All rights reserved.

  7. The Agricultural Research Department annual report 1985

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1986-03-01

    A description is given of the work in the Agricultural Research Department of Risoe National Laboratory. The description is given under the headings a) plant breeding research, and b) energy consumption in plant cultivation. A list of staff members is also given. (bp)

  8. Agriculture and Food Processes Branch program summary document

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    None

    1980-06-01

    The work of the Agriculture and Food Processes Branch within the US DOE's Office of Industrial Programs is discussed and reviewed. The Branch is responsible for assisting the food and agricultural sectors of the economy in increasing their energy efficiency by cost sharing with industry the development and demonstration of technologies industry by itself would not develop because of a greater than normal risk factor, but have significant energy conservation benefits. This task is made more difficult by the diversity of agriculture and the food industry. The focus of the program is now on the development and demonstration of energy conservation technology in high energy use industry sectors and agricultural functions (e.g., sugar processing, meat processing, irrigation, and crop drying, high energy use functions common to many sectors of the food industry (e.g., refrigeration, drying, and evaporation), and innovative concepts (e.g., energy integrated farm systems. Specific projects within the program are summarized. (LCL)

  9. The carbon markets: which place for the french agriculture; Les marches du carbone: quelle place pour l'agriculture francaise?

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2006-02-15

    Even its positive role of carbon sequestration in the biomass by photosynthesis, the agriculture sector is responsible of about 20% of the french greenhouse gases emissions. Actions aim to reduce these emissions. This study allows the exploration of technic of reduction to reveal those which combine voluntarism, actors responsibility and economic profitability. It constitutes necessary work to better understand the greenhouse gases stakes in the agriculture and develop inventive projects. It offers also actions to implement by the public authorities to create success conditions of described mechanisms. (A.L.B.)

  10. implications of decision making process on agricultural employees

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    employees' turnover in Institute of Agricultural Research and Training Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. ... Furthermore, work life imbalance ( = 3.32), cost of training and recruitment ( = 3.18) and ..... Factors affecting job satisfaction of front-line.

  11. Improving patient and carer communication, multidisciplinary team working and goal-setting in stroke rehabilitation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Monaghan, J; Channell, K; McDowell, D; Sharma, A K

    2005-03-01

    To determine the extent to which three forms of multidisciplinary team (MDT) care in stroke rehabilitation meet the standards set by the United Kingdom National Service Framework (NSF). Consecutive assessment of the three forms of care was completed. The study included three groups of 25 stroke inpatients on the stroke rehabilitation ward. (1) A standard weekly MDT meeting using a standard form for documentation; (2) a standard MDT meeting using a newly devised form; and (3) a novel MDT ward round using the new form, and attended by doctors. MDT ward rounds result in significantly better consideration of patients' needs (median 7 per patient compared with 0 and 5 in phases one and two), enhanced SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time framed) goal-setting (median 3 per patient compared to 1 in phases one and two); greater patient involvement (12 patients compared to 0 and 4 in phases one and two); and improved team working (measured using the team climate inventory) than do MDT meetings. In the present study, standard weekly MDT meetings did not meet the standards set for MDT care by the NSF. The use of a MDT ward round allows these standards to be achieved.

  12. Priority of areas for agricultural radiovulnerability mapping

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rochedo, Elaine R.R.; Igreja, Eduardo, E-mail: elainerochedo@gmail.com, E-mail: eduigreja@gmail.com [Instituto Militar de Engenharia (IME), Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil). Programa de Engenharia Nuclear; Wasserman, Maria Angelica V., E-mail: mwasserman@ien.gov.br [Instituto de Engenharia Nuclear (IEN/CNEN-RJ), Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil); Perez, Daniel V., E-mail: chpd@cnps.embrapa.br [Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuaria (EMBRAPA), Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil). Centro Nacional de Pesquisa de Solos; Rochedo, Pedro R.R., E-mail: rochedopedro@gmail.com [Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), RJ (Brazil). Programa de Planejamento Energetico; Silva, Diogo N.G., E-mail: diogongs@gmail.com [Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), RJ (Brazil). Instituto de Biofisica Carlos Chagas Filho

    2013-07-01

    The methodology for classifying areas according to soil properties for the vulnerability to a {sup 137}Cs contamination is of high importance to the preparedness related to nuclear and/or radiological accidents that lead to release of radionuclides to the environment with the consequent contamination of agricultural areas. The priority of research for agricultural areas should then focus on the surrounding areas of nuclear power plant that have higher probability of public exposure through the ingestion pathway. The objective of this work was to create a rank order for priority of areas to be mapped based on EMBRAPA database on soil properties. The 16 municipalities previously selected to define parameters for dose assessment simulations related to the Brazilian Nuclear Power Plants, located in the district of Angra dos Reis, Rio de Janeiro, have been investigated in order to create this rank order to direct the research on radio vulnerability mapping, considering their relevance to public exposure based on their agricultural productivity. The two aspects selected in this study account for the maximum loss of income and to the collective doses that can be averted due to the banning of agricultural products. These quantities are inputs to optimization analysis. The priority defined shall then guide research on both the adequate values for the transfer factors and on the agricultural countermeasures suitable to each area according to the cause(s) of their vulnerability and their typical agricultural crops. (author)

  13. Priority of areas for agricultural radiovulnerability mapping

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rochedo, Elaine R.R.; Igreja, Eduardo; Perez, Daniel V.; Rochedo, Pedro R.R.; Silva, Diogo N.G.

    2013-01-01

    The methodology for classifying areas according to soil properties for the vulnerability to a 137 Cs contamination is of high importance to the preparedness related to nuclear and/or radiological accidents that lead to release of radionuclides to the environment with the consequent contamination of agricultural areas. The priority of research for agricultural areas should then focus on the surrounding areas of nuclear power plant that have higher probability of public exposure through the ingestion pathway. The objective of this work was to create a rank order for priority of areas to be mapped based on EMBRAPA database on soil properties. The 16 municipalities previously selected to define parameters for dose assessment simulations related to the Brazilian Nuclear Power Plants, located in the district of Angra dos Reis, Rio de Janeiro, have been investigated in order to create this rank order to direct the research on radio vulnerability mapping, considering their relevance to public exposure based on their agricultural productivity. The two aspects selected in this study account for the maximum loss of income and to the collective doses that can be averted due to the banning of agricultural products. These quantities are inputs to optimization analysis. The priority defined shall then guide research on both the adequate values for the transfer factors and on the agricultural countermeasures suitable to each area according to the cause(s) of their vulnerability and their typical agricultural crops. (author)

  14. Planning and costing agriculture's adaptation to climate change

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Chambwera, Muyeye; Downing, Tom; Venton, Courtenay Cabot; Dyszynski, Jillian; Crawford, Victoria; Butterfield, Ruth; Kaur, Nanki; Birch, Tom; Loga, Denise

    2011-11-15

    Changing climate will have adverse effects on food production, food distribution, infrastructure, land availability for agriculture, and livelihood assets and opportunities in rural and urban areas. Adapting food systems to both enhance food security for the poor and to prevent the future negative impacts of climate change will require attention to more than just agricultural production. Food security can only be ensured and enhanced through a range of interventions across different agricultural systems and along the associated value chains, from production to distribution and allocation. The current efforts to get agriculture into the global climate policy framework after the expiry of the Kyoto Protocol emphasises mitigation. Adaptation is an equally important objective in a world that cannot avoid climate change any more because of already accumulated greenhouse gases. In developing countries, adaptation is the primary concern due to their vulnerability to climate change and high dependence on weather-dependent agricultural systems. A complete response to climate change that integrates agriculture should therefore pursue both agricultural mitigation and adaptation. In order to plan for adaptation effectively, policy makers need reliable information from developing countries on the nature of adaptation, its costs and how these are related to ongoing efforts to develop the agriculture sector and food systems of developing countries. This study set out to inform climate policy development by analysing agricultural adaptation in developing countries using a combination of desk studies and country case studies to provide a framework, areas to focus on when planning agricultural adaptation and the likely costs. It followed key steps for bringing together global and local perspectives for the benefit of both global stakeholders and developing countries.

  15. SIB health psychology in Brazil: The challenges for working in public health settings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spink, Mary-Jane P; Brigagão, Jacqueline M; Menegon, Vera M; Vicentin, Maria-Cristina G

    2016-03-01

    Considering the diversity of theoretical approaches and settings for psychological practice, this editorial provides a background for the articles that have been included in this special issue concerning health psychology in the context of the Brazilian Unified Health System (Sistema Unico de Saude). We addressed issues concerning the national curricular outline for undergraduate training in psychology and historical data on the social movements that led to the creation of the Sistema Unico de Saude and the Psychiatric Reform which created an important area for psychological work absorbing a considerable number of psychologists. © The Author(s) 2016.

  16. Prospects for land-use sustainability on the agricultural frontier of the Brazilian Amazon.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Galford, Gillian L; Soares-Filho, Britaldo; Cerri, Carlos E P

    2013-06-05

    The Brazilian Amazon frontier shows how remarkable leadership can work towards increased agricultural productivity and environmental sustainability without new greenhouse gas emissions. This is due to initiatives among various stakeholders, including national and state government and agents, farmers, consumers, funding agencies and non-governmental organizations. Change has come both from bottom-up and top-down actions of these stakeholders, providing leadership, financing and monitoring to foster environmental sustainability and agricultural growth. Goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from land-cover and land-use change in Brazil are being achieved through a multi-tiered approach that includes policies to reduce deforestation and initiatives for forest restoration, as well as increased and diversified agricultural production, intensified ranching and innovations in agricultural management. Here, we address opportunities for the Brazilian Amazon in working towards low-carbon rural development and environmentally sustainable landscapes.

  17. A Food Systems Approach To Healthy Food And Agriculture Policy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Neff, Roni A; Merrigan, Kathleen; Wallinga, David

    2015-11-01

    Food has become a prominent focus of US public health policy. The emphasis has been almost exclusively on what Americans eat, not what is grown or how it is grown. A field of research, policy, and practice activities addresses the food-health-agriculture nexus, yet the work is still often considered "alternative" to the mainstream. This article outlines the diverse ways in which agriculture affects public health. It then describes three policy issues: farm-to-school programming, sustainability recommendations in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, and antibiotic use in animal agriculture. These issues illustrate the progress, challenges, and public health benefits of taking a food systems approach that brings together the food, agriculture, and public health fields. Project HOPE—The People-to-People Health Foundation, Inc.

  18. Experiences of Work-Life Conflict for the Athletic Trainer Employed Outside the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Clinical Setting

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mazerolle, Stephanie M.; Pitney, William A.; Eason, Christianne M.

    2015-01-01

    Context The intercollegiate setting receives much of the scholarly attention related to work-life conflict (WLC). However research has been focused on the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I setting. Multiple factors can lead to WLC for the athletic trainer (AT), including hours, travel, and lack of flexibility in work schedules. Objective To investigate the experiences of WLC among ATs working in the non-Division I collegiate setting and to identify factors that contribute to fulfillment of work-life balance in this setting. Design Qualitative study. Setting Institutions in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Divisions II and III, the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, and the National Junior College Athletic Association. Patients or Other Participants A total of 244 ATs (128 women, 114 men; age = 37.5 ± 13.3 years, experience = 14 ± 12 years) completed phase I. Thirteen participants (8 women, 5 men; age = 38 ± 13 years, experience = 13.1 ± 11.4 years) completed phase II. Data Collection and Analysis For phase I, participants completed a previously validated and reliable (Cronbach α > .90) Web-based survey measuring their levels of WLC and work-family conflict (WFC). This phase included 2 WFC scales defining family; scale 1 defined family as having a partner or spouse with or without children, and scale 2 defined family as those individuals, including parents, siblings, grandparents, and any other close relatives, involved in one's life. Phase II consisted of an interview. Qualitative data were evaluated using content analysis. Data source and multiple-analyst triangulation secured credibility. Results The WFC scores were 26.33 ± 7.37 for scale 1 and 20.46 ± 10.14 for scale 2, indicating a moderate level of WFC for scale 1 and a low level of WFC for scale 2. Qualitative analyses revealed that organizational dimensions, such as job demands and staffing issues, can negatively affect WLC, whereas a combination of

  19. The climate-smart village approach: framework of an integrative strategy for scaling up adaptation options in agriculture

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pramod K. Aggarwal

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Increasing weather risks threaten agricultural production systems and food security across the world. Maintaining agricultural growth while minimizing climate shocks is crucial to building a resilient food production system and meeting developmental goals in vulnerable countries. Experts have proposed several technological, institutional, and policy interventions to help farmers adapt to current and future weather variability and to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG emissions. This paper presents the climate-smart village (CSV approach as a means of performing agricultural research for development that robustly tests technological and institutional options for dealing with climatic variability and climate change in agriculture using participatory methods. It aims to scale up and scale out the appropriate options and draw out lessons for policy makers from local to global levels. The approach incorporates evaluation of climate-smart technologies, practices, services, and processes relevant to local climatic risk management and identifies opportunities for maximizing adaptation gains from synergies across different interventions and recognizing potential maladaptation and trade-offs. It ensures that these are aligned with local knowledge and link into development plans. This paper describes early results in Asia, Africa, and Latin America to illustrate different examples of the CSV approach in diverse agroecological settings. Results from initial studies indicate that the CSV approach has a high potential for scaling out promising climate-smart agricultural technologies, practices, and services. Climate analog studies indicate that the lessons learned at the CSV sites would be relevant to adaptation planning in a large part of global agricultural land even under scenarios of climate change. Key barriers and opportunities for further work are also discussed.

  20. Understanding the Reach of Agricultural Impacts from Climate Extremes in the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ruane, A. C.

    2016-12-01

    The Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) has been working since 2010 to build a modeling framework capable of representing the complexities of agriculture, its dependence on climate, and the many elements of society that depend on food systems. AgMIP's 30+ activities explore the interconnected nature of climate, crop, livestock, economics, food security, and nutrition, using common protocols to systematically evaluate the components of agricultural assessment and allow multi-model, multi-scale, and multi-method analysis of intertwining changes in socioeconomic development, environmental change, and technological adaptation. AgMIP is now launching Coordinated Global and Regional Assessments (CGRA) with a particular focus on unforeseen consequences of development strategies, interactions between global and local systems, and the resilience of agricultural systems to extreme climate events. Climate extremes shock the agricultural system through local, direct impacts (e.g., droughts, heat waves, floods, severe storms) and also through teleconnections propagated through international trade. As the climate changes, the nature of climate extremes affecting agriculture is also likely to change, leading to shifting intensity, duration, frequency, and geographic extents of extremes. AgMIP researchers are developing new scenario methodologies to represent near-term extreme droughts in a probabilistic manner, field experiments that impose heat wave conditions on crops, increased resolution to differentiate sub-national drought impacts, new behavioral functions that mimic the response of market actors faced with production shortfalls, analysis of impacts from simultaneous failures of multiple breadbasket regions, and more detailed mapping of food and socioeconomic indicators into food security and nutrition metrics that describe the human impact in diverse populations. Agricultural models illustrate the challenges facing agriculture, allowing

  1. 77 FR 38634 - Request for Information: Collection and Use of Patient Work Information in the Clinical Setting...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-06-28

    ... (specialty) health care: At your clinical facility, how is the patient's work information collected... the Clinical Setting: Electronic Health Records AGENCY: The National Institute for Occupational Safety... Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Department of...

  2. Parallel effects of memory set activation and search on timing and working memory capacity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schweickert, Richard; Fortin, Claudette; Xi, Zhuangzhuang; Viau-Quesnel, Charles

    2014-01-01

    Accurately estimating a time interval is required in everyday activities such as driving or cooking. Estimating time is relatively easy, provided a person attends to it. But a brief shift of attention to another task usually interferes with timing. Most processes carried out concurrently with timing interfere with it. Curiously, some do not. Literature on a few processes suggests a general proposition, the Timing and Complex-Span Hypothesis: A process interferes with concurrent timing if and only if process performance is related to complex span. Complex-span is the number of items correctly recalled in order, when each item presented for study is followed by a brief activity. Literature on task switching, visual search, memory search, word generation and mental time travel supports the hypothesis. Previous work found that another process, activation of a memory set in long term memory, is not related to complex-span. If the Timing and Complex-Span Hypothesis is true, activation should not interfere with concurrent timing in dual-task conditions. We tested such activation in single-task memory search task conditions and in dual-task conditions where memory search was executed with concurrent timing. In Experiment 1, activating a memory set increased reaction time, with no significant effect on time production. In Experiment 2, set size and memory set activation were manipulated. Activation and set size had a puzzling interaction for time productions, perhaps due to difficult conditions, leading us to use a related but easier task in Experiment 3. In Experiment 3 increasing set size lengthened time production, but memory activation had no significant effect. Results here and in previous literature on the whole support the Timing and Complex-Span Hypotheses. Results also support a sequential organization of activation and search of memory. This organization predicts activation and set size have additive effects on reaction time and multiplicative effects on percent

  3. EVALUATION OF AGRICULTURAL LAND NEAR THE CITY OF ALEXANDRIA, TELEORMAN

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lavinia Parvan

    2011-12-01

    Full Text Available The need for preservation and enhancement of agricultural soil fertility requires a thorough analysis of the agricultural production limiting and restrictive factors. This analysis takes into account the investigation of these gradients and limitations within the studied area, determining their severity, their areas of manifestation, the areas on which the prevention measures as well as the improvement works can be applied.

  4. The effects of China's Sloping Land Conversion Program on agricultural households

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Liu, Zhen; Henningsen, Arne

    2016-01-01

    In the late 1990s, China aimed to mitigate environmental degradation from agricultural production activities by introducing the world's largest "Payments for Environmental Services" program: the Sloping Land Conversion Program (SLCP). We develop a microeconomic Agricultural Household Model, which...... nonfarm labor supply and total consumption in some regions, these effects could not be observed in others. The recent reduction of the SLCP compensation payment rates generally had negligible effects on agricultural production and off-farm work and only very small effects on household consumption....

  5. Great economic crisis in Polish agriculture - a remainder and caution

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wiesław Musiał

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available The work presents chosen aspects of the course of the so-called great economic crisis which took place in 1929-1933 in economy, including agricultural sector. The results of the crisis in the sphere of agricultural production, the use of production means and concerning shaping of the price level and price relationships were discussed. Attention was paid to the state intervention measures aimed to diminish the range of crisis in agriculture and reasons of their low efficiency. It was demonstrated that the crisis was very deep and beside the economy involved also the social, cultural and political spheres.

  6. Formation of natural agricultural institutions in the structure of UAS in 1920-1930

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Валерій Вікторович Новородовський

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available The backgrounds and reasons that caused formation of the network of natural agricultural scientific research institutes in the structure of UAS are analyzed. Taking into account the fact that the main complex of agricultural researches was concentrated in the establishments of PCA of Ukrainian SSR, the focus in the work is done on solving separate applied problems of agricultural sector by UAS establishments

  7. An Evaluation Tool for Agricultural Health and Safety Mobile Applications.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reyes, Iris; Ellis, Tammy; Yoder, Aaron; Keifer, Matthew C

    2016-01-01

    As the use of mobile devices and their software applications, or apps, becomes ubiquitous, use amongst agricultural working populations is expanding as well. The smart device paired with a well-designed app has potential for improving workplace health and safety in the hands of those who can act upon the information provided. Many apps designed to assess workplace hazards and implementation of worker protections already exist. However, the abundance and diversity of such applications also presents challenges regarding evaluation practices and assignation of value. This is particularly true in the agricultural workspace, as there is currently little information on the value of these apps for agricultural safety and health. This project proposes a framework for developing and evaluating apps that have potential usefulness in agricultural health and safety. The evaluation framework is easily transferable, with little modification for evaluation of apps in several agriculture-specific areas.

  8. Internal control in non - agricultural cooperatives

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yolanda García Castro

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available The process of formation of non-agricultural cooperatives in Cuba, has been a step forward for the Cuban economy, provide primary care represents economic sustainability for the country. A necessary tool for achieving quality in the provision of services and products, it represents the audit process. In this sense the present work was aimed in the Council of the Provincial Administration, in order to strengthen the functioning of non-agricultural cooperatives. Theoretical and empirical methods, techniques, surveys and interviews with leaders and workers, aimed to assess the knowledge, applications for the creation of cooperatives, processing, approval, establishment and operation, based on guidelines established in internal control were applied; and descriptive statistics for processing information, which identified the important work that developed the organization, which was able to promote the operation of non-agricultural cooperatives, as well as the tools necessary for the production of income and consequently improve the quality of services. The diagnosis made it possible to identify the point in the process, so disruption to the operation. Undoubtedly, every experiment needs time to mature and gain experience, besides confirming Waste Disposal workers cooperatives and agencies to jump-start this process. Improvement measures were implemented in order to increase the economic efficiency of each process, in response to various guidelines of Economic and Social Policy of the Party and the Revolution, adopted at the Sixth Party Congress and Conference Objectives.

  9. The use of PROBA-V data for Global Agricultural Monitoring

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bydekerke, Lieven; Gilliams, Sven; Kempeneers, Pieter; Piccard, Isabelle; Deronde, Bart; Eerens, Herman; Gobin, Anne

    2015-04-01

    Land conversion, forest cutting, urban growth, agricultural expansion, take place at an unprecedented rate and scale such that they have a strong economic and environmental impact. Understanding and measuring dynamics becomes a prerequisite for companies, governments, agencies, NGO's, research institutes and society in general. In many cases the temporal frequency of the information is a requirement to detect phenomena that can occur within a few days and at a certain geographic scale. For example frequent updates on crop condition and projected production are needed to stabilise agricultural markets. Large initiatives such as the GEOGLAM AMIS (Group on Earth Observations Global Agricultural Monitoring - Agricultural Market Information System) respond to this increased need. Observations over large areas are available through satellites, however, the following challenges remain: • obtaining frequent and consistent observations at sufficient level of detail to identify spatial phenomena. At present, no single mission is capable of providing near daily information of any place in the world at scales appropriate to detect land cover/use changes in a consistent manner. • the need for a historical reference. For agricultural monitoring and early warning purposes the comparison of the actual data with a historical reference is of the utmost importance. The PROBA-V mission is an important attempt to overcome these challenges. From its design and within the GIO-Global Land component a lot of work has been done to ensure the consistency between the PROBA-V data and the 15 years historical archive of SPOT-VEGETATION. In this respect PROBA-V observations are comparable with the SPOT-VEGETATION historical baseline and will therefore ensure the continuation of the standard agricultural monitoring products. Next to this integration with the historical archive, PROBA -V also provides an increase in spatial resolution from 1km to 300m and even 100m. The latter ensures a global

  10. Motherhood and work-life balance in the national collegiate athletic association division I setting: mentors and the female athletic trainer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eason, Christianne M; Mazerolle, Stephanie M; Goodman, Ashley

    2014-01-01

    One of the greatest catalysts for turnover among female athletic trainers (ATs) is motherhood, especially if employed at the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I level. The medical education literature regularly identifies the importance of role models in professional character formation. However, few researchers have examined the responsibility of mentorship and professional role models as it relates to female ATs' perceptions of motherhood and retention. To evaluate perceptions of motherhood and retention in relation to mentorship and role models among female ATs currently employed in the collegiate setting. Qualitative study. Female athletic trainers working in National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I. Twenty-seven female ATs employed in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I setting volunteered. Average age of the participants was 35 ± 9 years. All were full-time ATs with an average of 11 ± 8 years of clinical experience. Participants responded to questions by journaling their thoughts and experiences. Multiple-analyst triangulation and peer review were included as steps to establish data credibility. Male and female role models and mentors can positively or negatively influence the career and work-life balance perceptions of female ATs working in the Division I setting. Female ATs have a desire to see more women in the profession handle the demands of motherhood and the demands of their clinical setting. Women who have had female mentors are more positive about the prospect of balancing the rigors of motherhood and job demands. Role models and mentors are valuable resources for promoting perseverance in the profession in the highly demanding clinical settings. As more female ATs remain in the profession who are able to maintain work-life balance and are available to serve as role models, the attitudes of other women may start to change.

  11. Effects of climate change on US agriculture

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Guillet, L.

    2007-08-01

    The USA are a major producer of food and fiber products in the world. The US agriculture represents more than 25% of the world trades of wheat, corn, soy and cotton. The cultivated surfaces and the pasture lands represent 210 million Ha (17% of the US territory) and 300 million Ha (26% of the US territory), respectively. The agricultural production represents less than 2% of the US GDP, put the agriculture products make about 5% of the US exports. The climate change may have some impacts on the overall agriculture industry, from the plant growth to the conditions of competition on international markets. In 2001, the US global change research program, published an evaluation report about the potential consequences of the climate change on the US agriculture. The conclusions of the panel of experts, based on climate, cultivation and economical models, was that the CO 2 levels and climate changes of the 21. century would have no negative impact on the US agriculture. The average effects, on the contrary, would be rather positive, depending on the type of culture and on the region considered. Today, the experts have entertained lot of doubts about the 2001 forecasts: the fertilizing effect of CO 2 is more and more criticized and an efficient supply of water appears as seriously compromised for many regions. Experts stress also on the lack of consideration for extreme climatic events, and for crop vermin and diseases. This document reanalyzes the conclusions of the 2001 report in the light of the works carried out more recently at the Agriculture Research Service (ARS). The proceedings of expert's interviews are attached in appendixes. (J.S.)

  12. 7 CFR 28.107 - Original cotton standards and reserve sets.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Original cotton standards and reserve sets. 28.107... Standards Act Practical Forms of Cotton Standards § 28.107 Original cotton standards and reserve sets. (a) The containers of the original Universal Standards and other official cotton standards of the United...

  13. Agro-Science Journal of Tropical Agriculture, Food, Environment ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    PC USER

    Agro-Science Journal of Tropical Agriculture, Food, Environment and Extension. Volume 14 ... 3Department of Home Science, Nutrition and Dietetics, University of Nigeria, Nsukka,. Nigeria ..... work was found to be 25.7%. This value is higher.

  14. Administrative, institutional and legislative issues on agricultural waste exploitation in Turkey

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kaya, Durmus; Baban, Ahmet; Dikec, Stephanie; Canka Kilic, Fatma

    2008-01-01

    In this study, the influence of non-technical issues on the exploitation of agricultural waste in Turkey was investigated in accordance with the work program requirements for the project entitled ''Exploitation of Agricultural Waste in Turkey'' under the EU Life Third Countries Program. The study has been organized and presented according to the following four phases: (i) study of existing Turkish legislation and the administrative and institutional framework, (ii) review and analysis of the EU policy and legislation relevant to agricultural waste, including identification of potential market instruments, (iii) identification of barriers to the promotion of agricultural waste exploitation in Turkey, and (iv) Identification of gaps and formulation of recommendations. An ultimate objective of this study is to transfer the European experience and practices relative to the overall framework of managing agricultural waste. (author)

  15. Identifying and mitigating risks for agricultural injury associated with obesity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nathan King

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available In some occupational contexts overweight and obesity have been identified as risk factors for injury. The purpose of this study was to examine this hypothesis within farm work environments and then to identify specific opportunities for environmental modification as a preventive strategy. Data on farm-related injuries, height and weight used to calculate body mass index (BMI, and demographic characteristics were from the Phase 2 baseline survey of the Saskatchewan Farm Injury Cohort; a large cross-sectional mail-based survey conducted in Saskatchewan, Canada from January through May 2013. Multivariable logistic regression was used to examine associations between BMI and injury. Injury narratives were explored qualitatively. Findings were inconsistent and differed according to gender. Among women (n = 927, having overweight (adjusted OR: 2.94; 95% CI: 1.29 to 6.70 but not obesity (1.10; 95% CI: 0.35 to 3.43 was associated with an increased odds of incurring a farm-related injury. No strong or statistically significant effects were observed for men (n = 1406 with overweight or obesity. While injury-related challenges associated with obesity have been addressed in other occupational settings via modification of the worksite, such strategies are challenging to implement in farm settings because of the diversity of work tasks and associated hazards. We conclude that the acute effects of overweight in terms of injury do require consideration in agricultural populations, but these should also be viewed with a differentiation based on gender.

  16. Occupational health and safety of workers in agriculture and horticulture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lundqvist, P

    2000-01-01

    Working in agriculture and horticulture gives considerable job satisfaction. The tasks are often interesting; you can see the result of your own work, watch your crop grow and mature; you have an affinity with nature and can follow the changes in the seasons. However, today it is a dangerous work environment fraught with occupational injuries and diseases due to hazardous situations and to physiological, physical, biological, chemical, psychological, and sociological factors. The ongoing rapid development may, on the other hand, bring about many changes during the next decades with more farmers and growers switching to organic production. Moreover, increased awareness of animal welfare also may lead to improved working conditions. Large-scale operations with fewer family-operated agricultural businesses might mean fewer injuries among children and older farmers. A consequence of large-scale operations may also be better regulation of working conditions. The greater use of automation technology eliminates many harmful working postures and movements when milking cows and carrying out other tasks. Information technology offers people the opportunity to gain more knowledge about their work. Labeling food produced in a worker-friendly work environment may give the consumers a chance to be involved in the process.

  17. Assessment of alternative land management practices using hydrological simulation and a decision support tool: Arborea agricultural region, Sardinia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    P. Cau

    2007-11-01

    Full Text Available Quantifying the impact of land use on water supply and quality is a primary focus of environmental management. In this work we apply a semidistributed hydrological model (SWAT to predict the impact of different land management practices on water and agricultural chemical yield over a long period of time for a study site situated in the Arborea region of central Sardinia, Italy. The physical processes associated with water movement, crop growth, and nutrient cycling are directly modeled by SWAT. The model simulations are used to identify indicators that reflect critical processes related to the integrity and sustainability of the ecosystem. Specifically we focus on stream quality and quantity indicators associated with anthropogenic and natural sources of pollution. A multicriteria decision support system is then used to develop the analysis matrix where water quality and quantity indicators for the rivers, lagoons, and soil are combined with socio-economic variables. The DSS is used to assess four options involving alternative watersheds designated for intensive agriculture and dairy farming and the use or not of treated wastewater for irrigation. Our analysis suggests that of the four options, the most widely acceptable consists in the transfer of intensive agricultural practices to the larger watershed, which is less vulnerable, in tandem with wastewater reuse, which rates highly due to water scarcity in this region of the Mediterranean. More generally, the work demonstrates how both qualitative and quantitative methods and information can assist decision making in complex settings.

  18. Benthic algae of benchmark streams in agricultural areas of eastern Wisconsin

    Science.gov (United States)

    Scudder, Barbara C.; Stewart, Jana S.

    2001-01-01

    Benthic algae were collected from 20 streams in the Western Lake Michigan Drainages by the U.S. Geological Survey in May and June of 1993 as part of the National Water-Quality Assessment program. These streams were selected to represent "benchmark" streams that were minimally affected by human activities, especially agriculture, for comparison to other streams in similar environmental settings. Streams were chosen from four relatively homogeneous units (RHU's) in agricultural areas with differing texture of surficial deposits and bedrock type.

  19. Evaluation of investment processes in agriculture in Poland in 2000-2011

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aleksander Grzelak

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available The main aim of the article is evaluation of investment processes in agriculture in Poland in 2000-2011. Tendencies in range of investment activity after 2000 should by favourably estimate. Essential improvement in this area has happened especially after integration with the EU, in relationship to possibilities of funding investments by union funds. Also the enlargement of integration investment activity in agriculture has been noticed on background of tendency in total economy. In spite an increasing tendency in case of ability to invest in agriculture, its level was insufficient to set – back decapitalization of fixed assets in the whole agriculture. The situation would be positive if the tendency of growth degree of consumption of assets was stopped. On the other hand, awareness is necessary of the considerable differentiation in relation to investment activity with regard to the scale of production. It can be supposed, that started investment processes will bring to a part of agricultural farms multiplied effects which will actively use the investment support under the CAP instruments and preferential credits. It will intensify the processes of polarization in agriculture.

  20. What does the implementation of IFRS for SMEs bring for agricultural enterprises?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hana Bohušová

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Agricultural activity is largely different from other activities that the entities perform in order to achieve profit. Unlike other business entities, agricultural produce is significantly dependent on natural climatic conditions, and therefore a particular specialization of agricultural produce depends on geographic location. Agricultural producers use every form of business organization, from small farms to large publicly held corporations. Although most entrepreneurs working in agriculture are small and medium enterprises, the specifics of agriculture are significantly reflected in the financial reporting intended primarily for large corporations traded on the capital markets. Aim of this paper is to review the possibilities of implementation of the provisions relating to agriculture in the frame of IFRS for SMEs into practice of entities concerned whose object is agricultural production and to recommend appropriate application in practice. There are designed specific procedures of recording in relation to the nature of biological assets and agricultural produce and ways of measurement in this paper. The nature of biological assets is considered as distinguishing criterion (consumable assets, bearer assets and consumable assets with long production cycle.

  1. Automation facilities for agricultural machinery control

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. Yu. Izmaylov

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available The possibility of use of the automation equipment for agricultural machinery control is investigated. The authors proposed solutions on creation of the centralized unified automated information system for mobile aggregates management. In accordance with the modern requirements this system should be open, integrated into the general schema of agricultural enterprise control. Standard hardware, software and communicative features should be realized in tasks of monitoring and control. Therefore the schema should be get with use the unified modules and Russian standards. The complex multivariate unified automated control system for different objects of agricultural purpose based on block and modular creation should correspond to the following principles: high reliability, simplicity of service, low expenses in case of operation, the short payback period connected to increase in productivity, the reduced losses when harvesting, postharvest processing and storage, the improved energetic indices. Technological processes control in agricultural production is exercised generally with feedback. The example without feedback is program control by temperature in storage in case of the cooling mode. Feedback at technological processes control in agricultural production allows to optimally solve a problem of rational distribution of functions in man-distributed systems and forming the intelligent ergonomic interfaces, consistent with professional perceptions of decision-makers. The negative feedback created by the control unit allows to support automatically a quality index of technological process at the set level. The quantitative analysis of a production situation base itself upon deeply formalized basis of computer facilities that promotes making of the optimal solution. Information automated control system introduction increases labor productivity by 40 percent, reduces energetic costs by 25 percent. Improvement of quality of the executed technological

  2. Back to Work

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fernandez, Kim

    2010-01-01

    The economic downturn hit working America particularly hard, as agricultural, automotive, manufacturing, and retail jobs in many corners of the country all but evaporated. Consumers continue to cut back, and jobless rates in many states have eclipsed levels not seen in decades. Out of work and under pressure, many Americans are turning to the…

  3. Determinants of Urban Expansion and Agricultural Land Conversion in 25 EU Countries

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ustaoglu, Eda; Williams, Brendan

    2017-10-01

    Agricultural land conversion is resulting from ongoing complex interaction between the physical environment, policy settings and socio-economic factors. Case studies of the determinants of agricultural land conversion potentially contribute to the analysis of the main causes of land-use change. This can assist authorities and policy makers in understanding the relative importance of a wide range of factors on urban expansion and associated agricultural land-use change. This paper explores the determinants of agricultural land conversion to urban uses in the studied 25 European Union countries between 2000 and 2006. European-level as well as region-specific land-use changes are studied. The research is using the spatial data adapted from European Corine Land Cover maps of 2000 and 2006 and utilised other European sources regarding socio-economic, natural, geological, climate, and policy-related data. The differences in urbanisation processes observed in different regions in Europe emphasise the regional variations of urban conversion process of agricultural land use. This study identifies a combination of socio-economic drivers, policy-related factors, nature and location-based factors as key influences on agricultural land conversion processes in Europe. Specifically we found that the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) subsidies were influential in curbing urbanisation and reducing agricultural land consumption.

  4. Determinants of Urban Expansion and Agricultural Land Conversion in 25 EU Countries.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ustaoglu, Eda; Williams, Brendan

    2017-10-01

    Agricultural land conversion is resulting from ongoing complex interaction between the physical environment, policy settings and socio-economic factors. Case studies of the determinants of agricultural land conversion potentially contribute to the analysis of the main causes of land-use change. This can assist authorities and policy makers in understanding the relative importance of a wide range of factors on urban expansion and associated agricultural land-use change. This paper explores the determinants of agricultural land conversion to urban uses in the studied 25 European Union countries between 2000 and 2006. European-level as well as region-specific land-use changes are studied. The research is using the spatial data adapted from European Corine Land Cover maps of 2000 and 2006 and utilised other European sources regarding socio-economic, natural, geological, climate, and policy-related data. The differences in urbanisation processes observed in different regions in Europe emphasise the regional variations of urban conversion process of agricultural land use. This study identifies a combination of socio-economic drivers, policy-related factors, nature and location-based factors as key influences on agricultural land conversion processes in Europe. Specifically we found that the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) subsidies were influential in curbing urbanisation and reducing agricultural land consumption.

  5. Education and Research Related to Organic Waste Management at Agricultural Engineering Schools

    Science.gov (United States)

    Soliva, Montserrat; Bernat, Carles; Gil, Emilio; Martinez, Xavier; Pujol, Miquel; Sabate, Josep; Valero, Jordi

    2007-01-01

    Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe the experience of the Agriculture Engineering School of Barcelona (ESAB), where undergraduate students were involved in field research experiments on organic waste use in agricultural systems. Design/methodology/approach: The paper outlines how the formation of professionals oriented to work for…

  6. Agriculture energy prospective by 2030: scenarios and action patterns

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2010-01-01

    This paper presents and comments the main results of a work-group focused on the evolution of agriculture in France in relationship with the new energetic context. Four scenarios have been defined, corresponding to different energetic, but also social, political and economic contexts by 2030. The first one corresponds to a severe energy crisis with an emergence of regional governance. The second one corresponds to a high volatility of energy prices, an increased easing of restrictions on trade, and a decrease of public supports and subsidies for agriculture. The third one corresponds to a strong reduction of the use of phyto-sanitary products in agriculture, a continuous urban sprawl, and the prevalence of road transport. The fourth one corresponds to agriculture respectful of the environment and a good management of energy consumption. Direct and indirect energy consumptions are assessed for the four scenarios. Some general and operational objectives are thus identified

  7. Agriculture and Bioactives: Achieving Both Crop Yield and Phytochemicals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Irineo Torres-Pacheco

    2013-02-01

    Full Text Available Plants are fundamental elements of the human diet, either as direct sources of nutrients or indirectly as feed for animals. During the past few years, the main goal of agriculture has been to increase yield in order to provide the food that is needed by a growing world population. As important as yield, but commonly forgotten in conventional agriculture, is to keep and, if it is possible, to increase the phytochemical content due to their health implications. Nowadays, it is necessary to go beyond this, reconciling yield and phytochemicals that, at first glance, might seem in conflict. This can be accomplished through reviewing food requirements, plant consumption with health implications, and farming methods. The aim of this work is to show how both yield and phytochemicals converge into a new vision of agricultural management in a framework of integrated agricultural practices.

  8. The Association of Workplace Social Capital With Work Engagement of Employees in Health Care Settings: A Multilevel Cross-Sectional Analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fujita, Sumiko; Kawakami, Norito; Ando, Emiko; Inoue, Akiomi; Tsuno, Kanami; Kurioka, Sumiko; Kawachi, Ichiro

    2016-03-01

    The aim of the study was to examine the cross-sectional multilevel association between unit-level workplace social capital and individual-level work engagement among employees in health care settings. The data were collected from employees of a Japanese health care corporation using a questionnaire. The analyses were limited to 440 respondents from 35 units comprising five or more respondents per unit. Unit-level workplace social capital was calculated as an average score of the Workplace Social Capital Scale for each unit. Multilevel regression analysis with a random intercept model was conducted. After adjusting for demographic variables, unit-level workplace social capital was significantly and positively associated with respondents' work engagement (P capital (P capital might exert a positive contextual effect on work engagement of employees in health care settings.

  9. Work Safety Climate, Musculoskeletal Discomfort, Working While Injured, and Depression Among Migrant Farmworkers in North Carolina

    Science.gov (United States)

    O’Hara, Heather; Grzywacz, Joseph G.; Isom, Scott; Chen, Haiying; Quandt, Sara A.

    2012-01-01

    Objectives. This analysis described Latino migrant farmworkers’ work safety climate and its association with musculoskeletal discomfort, working while injured or ill, and depressive symptoms. Methods. Data were from a cross-sectional survey of 300 farmworkers conducted in North Carolina in 2009. Generalized estimating equations models were used to investigate the association of work safety climate with health and safety outcomes. Results. Farmworkers perceived their work safety climate to be poor. About 40% had elevated musculoskeletal discomfort, 5.0% had worked at least 1 day while injured or ill, and 27.9% had elevated depressive symptoms. The odds of elevated musculoskeletal discomfort were 12% lower and the odds of working while injured or ill were 15% lower with each 1-unit increase in the work safety climate. Work safety climate was not associated with depressive symptoms. Conclusions. Work safety climate was important for agricultural workers. Poor work safety climate was associated with health outcomes (musculoskeletal discomfort) and safety (working while injured or ill). Interventions to improve work safety climate in agriculture are needed, with these interventions being directed to employers and workers. PMID:22401520

  10. TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY OF AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES USE IN RUSSIA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    V. M. Korotchenya

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Technical efficiency of agricultural resources use in Russia is assessed. As methodology for calculations the author used Data envelopment analysis (DEA which is the nonparametric method based on linear programming. The essence of the DEA method consists in an efficiency evaluation of homogeneous units of decision making proceeding from creation on the basis of real data (amounts of resources and amounts of types of output of general border of production capabilities. CCR-I model was offerd as a specific kind of the DEA model. It is the radial DEA model with continual returns to scale and orientation to resources. The group of 54 countries included in a research consisted of the states of the CIS, BRIC, the EU, OECD. The time frames of calculation were established: 1992-2007 and 2008-2012 (owing to lack of uniform data for all time interval. Аmount of agricultural products was used as output. Agricultural lands, an economically active population in agriculture, farm machines and the equipment, a livestock, fertilizers were used in the form of resources. The main source of statistical data is FAOSTAT. From 54 countries under consideration Belgium, Greece, Israel, Malta and the Netherlands became leaders in technical efficiency of agricultural industry in 1992-2007. Inefficient use of agricultural resources, especially lands was established as a result of the conducted research in Russia. On average efficiency of use of agricultural lands in our country can be increased by 8 times, work - by 2-2.5 times, machines - by 2-3 times, a livestock and fertilizers - by 1.5-2 times. Good tendencies to growth of efficiency of agricultural production are notice in 2008-2012.

  11. Improving agricultural knowledge management: The AgTrials experience [version 1; referees: 2 approved

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Glenn Hyman

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available Background: Opportunities to use data and information to address challenges in international agricultural research and development are expanding rapidly. The use of agricultural trial and evaluation data has enormous potential to improve crops and management practices. However, for a number of reasons, this potential has yet to be realized. This paper reports on the experience of the AgTrials initiative, an effort to build an online database of agricultural trials applying principles of interoperability and open access. Methods: Our analysis evaluates what worked and what did not work in the development of the AgTrials information resource. We analyzed data on our users and their interaction with the platform. We also surveyed our users to gauge their perceptions of the utility of the online database. Results: The study revealed barriers to participation and impediments to interaction, opportunities for improving agricultural knowledge management and a large potential for the use of trial and evaluation data. Conclusions: Technical and logistical mechanisms for developing interoperable online databases are well advanced.  More effort will be needed to advance organizational and institutional work for these types of databases to realize their potential.

  12. Improving agricultural knowledge management: The AgTrials experience [version 2; referees: 2 approved

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Glenn Hyman

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available Background: Opportunities to use data and information to address challenges in international agricultural research and development are expanding rapidly. The use of agricultural trial and evaluation data has enormous potential to improve crops and management practices. However, for a number of reasons, this potential has yet to be realized. This paper reports on the experience of the AgTrials initiative, an effort to build an online database of agricultural trials applying principles of interoperability and open access. Methods: Our analysis evaluates what worked and what did not work in the development of the AgTrials information resource. We analyzed data on our users and their interaction with the platform. We also surveyed our users to gauge their perceptions of the utility of the online database. Results: The study revealed barriers to participation and impediments to interaction, opportunities for improving agricultural knowledge management and a large potential for the use of trial and evaluation data. Conclusions: Technical and logistical mechanisms for developing interoperable online databases are well advanced.  More effort will be needed to advance organizational and institutional work for these types of databases to realize their potential.

  13. Suicide mortality and agricultural rationalization in post-war Europe.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mäkinen, Ilkka Henrik; Stickley, Andrew

    2006-06-01

    The relationship between agricultural rationalization and suicide mortality has been little researched. On the basis of the hypothesis that agricultural rationalization leads to more suicide, this study investigated whether a general relationship could be found between structural change in agriculture and suicide mortality in post-war Europe. Due to the expected small size of the effect, the data were deliberately collected so as to maximize the variation in the independent variable. Annual national-level data on suicide mortality, the percentage of the work force in agricultural employment, and the unemployment level were collected from those countries and 10-year periods where the structural changes (reductions in employment) in agriculture between 1950 and 1995 had been most and least pronounced. In order to avoid confounders, the annual changes in the variables' values were correlated with each other, adding a control for the level of unemployment, and allowing for lagged effects. The annual changes in the levels of agricultural employment and those of suicide mortality did not covary at all. Controlling for unemployment levels did not change this, nor could any lagged effects be found. At the most general level, no causal relation between agricultural rationalization and suicide mortality was detected. This lack of a universal relation does not, however, preclude the possibility of the relationship existing given certain socio-historical circumstances.

  14. Administrative, institutional and legislative issues on agricultural waste exploitation in Turkey

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kaya, Durmus; Baban, Ahmet; Dikec, Stephanie [TUBITAK MRC Chemistry and Enviorenment Institute, P.O. Box 21, 41470 Gebze-Kocaeli (Turkey); Canka Kilic, Fatma [Kocaeli University, KMYO, Department of Air Conditioning and Refrigeration, Kullar/Kocaeli (Turkey)

    2008-02-15

    In this study, the influence of non-technical issues on the exploitation of agricultural waste in Turkey was investigated in accordance with the work program requirements for the project entitled ''Exploitation of Agricultural Waste in Turkey'' under the EU Life Third Countries Program. The study has been organized and presented according to the following four phases: (i) study of existing Turkish legislation and the administrative and institutional framework, (ii) review and analysis of the EU policy and legislation relevant to agricultural waste, including identification of potential market instruments, (iii) identification of barriers to the promotion of agricultural waste exploitation in Turkey, and (iv) Identification of gaps and formulation of recommendations. An ultimate objective of this study is to transfer the European experience and practices relative to the overall framework of managing agricultural waste. (author)

  15. Agricultural Multifunctionality Evolution and Research into Issues concerning Agriculture,Countryside and Farmers

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    LIU Xin

    2012-01-01

    From the point of view of agricultural civilization, the history of human civilization is the history of the development of the agricultural civilization. Accompanied by social progress and development of the times, the function of agriculture also experiences the expansion and deepening. In terms of economy, there is a process from mechanized farming to industrialization, then to informatization, modernization and internationalization. The great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation has also experienced and witnessed this process. In terms of "agriculture, countryside and farmers", the content is complex, diverse, profound, sharp, and changing, constantly testing and challenging our wisdom. When the Document No.1 in 2007 targeted modern agriculture, it indicated that new connotation was integrated into agricultural multifunctionality, standing at a new starting point. At present, the function of agriculture is still deepening; there are tremendous achievements and outstanding problems concurrently in issues concerning agriculture, countryside and farmers. We take the agricultural multifunctionality as breakthrough point for exploration and research.

  16. Facilitating North-South Partnerships for Sustainable Agriculture

    Science.gov (United States)

    Termeer, C. J. A. M.; Hilhorst, T.; Oorthuizen, J.

    2010-01-01

    The increased number of development cooperation and sustainable agriculture partnerships brings with it new challenges for professionals who are asked to facilitate these partnering processes. In this article we shed more light on the world of development cooperation and we explore questions that facilitators working with North-South partnerships…

  17. [Ecological agriculture: future of Good Agriculture Practice of Chinese materia medica].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guo, Lan-ping; Zhou, Liang-yun; Mo, Ge; Wang, Sheng; Huang, Lu-qi

    2015-09-01

    Based on the ecological and economic problems in Good Agriculture Practice (GAP) of Chinese material medica, we introduced the origin, concept, features and operative technology of eco-agriculture worldwide, emphasizing its modes on different biological levels of landscape, ecosystem, community, population, individual and gene in China. And on this basis, we analyzed the background and current situation of eco-agriculture of Chinese materia medica, and proposed its development ideas and key tasks, including: (1) Analysis and planning of the production pattern of Chinese material medica national wide. (2) Typical features extraction of regional agriculture of Chinese materia medica. (3) Investigation of the interaction and its mechanism between typical Chinese materia medica in each region and the micro-ecology of rhizosphere soil. (4) Study on technology of eco-agriculture of Chinese materia medica. (5) Extraction and solidification of eco-agriculture modes of Chinese materia medica. (6) Study on the theory of eco-agriculture of Chinese materia medica. Also we pointed out that GAP and eco-agriculture of Chinese material medica are both different and relative, but they are not contradictory with their own features. It is an irresistible trend to promote eco-agriculture in the GAP of Chinese material medica and coordinate ecological and economic development.

  18. The Mode Reform of Cultivating Marketing Talents in Agricultural Vocational Colleges Based on the Perspective of Agricultural Enterprises——A Case Study of Wenzhou Vocational College of Science and Technology

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    2011-01-01

    We conduct survey on the characteristics of demand of agricultural enterprises for agricultural marketing talents from the following 6 aspects:the professional marketing talents needed urgently by the agricultural enterprises,the amount of demand of agricultural enterprises for the marketing talents,the jobs offered by the agricultural enterprises,the educational background of agricultural marketing talents favored by the agricultural enterprises,the requirements posed by the agricultural enterprises on the work experience of agricultural marketing talents,and the quality requirements posed by the agricultural enterprises on the agricultural marketing talents.We analyse the problems existing in the cultivation mode of marketing talents in agricultural vocational colleges as follows:the feature of major is not outstanding;the contradiction between supply and demand is prominent;it is disconnected with the practical needs of agricultural enterprises;the cultivation form of practical ability is simple.On the basis of this,taking Wenzhou Vocational College of Science and Technology as an example,we advance the new mode of cultivating inter-disciplinary talents integrating "marketing technique+technique marketing",and establish characteristic agricultural course combo system on the basis of vocational position orientation.In the meantime,we propose that we should conduct close college-enterprise cooperation with the local leading agricultural enterprises.This cultivation mode reform of talents is favorable for the agricultural enterprises,especially small and medium-sized agricultural enterprises to foster "marketable" agricultural marketing talents,elevate the comprehensive competitiveness of small and medium-sized agricultural enterprises,serve the local economy,and promote the development of modern agriculture,and China’s agriculture,farmer,and countryside.

  19. The Results and Analysis of a National Survey of Agricultural Economics Departmental Libraries

    OpenAIRE

    Seale, Colleen

    1989-01-01

    In order for agricultural economists to perform their work and research effectively, it is necessary that they have adequate reference materials, book, journals, documents, and statistical series readily accessible to them. The service of providing these reference and statistical materials to agricultural economists in an academic environment is generally provided by one of two means, through an agricultural economics reference room or through the services of the library system on campus. The...

  20. Agricultural development in the context of climate change

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mueller, N. D.; Gerber, J. S.; Ray, D. K.; Ramankutty, N.; Foley, J. A.

    2012-12-01

    Global climate change and continued intensification of agriculture are two "mega-trends" that will impact agricultural systems in the coming decades. While often these two trends are analyzed in isolation, recent work describes how climate change has historically offset some crop yield gains that would have otherwise occurred. Here we spatially analyze how these interactions between climate change and agricultural development may continue to 2025. We highlight areas that will be hit hardest by climate change and require aggressive management changes, as well as areas where large productivity increases are likely given current trends. To carry out our analysis we rely on a recently developed climate analog model to produce projections of climate-induced yield changes, projections of business-as-usual crop yield trends utilizing time-series data from ~13,500 agricultural census units, and published estimates of possible crop yield increases from aggressive intervention to close yield gaps. We find that a rich picture of agriculture in 2025 emerges when analyzing these multiple critical drivers. In many regions, existing yield trends or more aggressive management interventions (closing yield gaps) can overcome negative impacts from climate change. Thus, intensification can provide a buffer from near-term climate impacts, but it is unclear how long society may be able to rely on this buffering capacity.

  1. Biofertilizers: a potential approach for sustainable agriculture development.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mahanty, Trishna; Bhattacharjee, Surajit; Goswami, Madhurankhi; Bhattacharyya, Purnita; Das, Bannhi; Ghosh, Abhrajyoti; Tribedi, Prosun

    2017-02-01

    The worldwide increase in human population raises a big threat to the food security of each people as the land for agriculture is limited and even getting reduced with time. Therefore, it is essential that agricultural productivity should be enhanced significantly within the next few decades to meet the large demand of food by emerging population. Not to mention, too much dependence on chemical fertilizers for more crop productions inevitably damages both environmental ecology and human health with great severity. Exploitation of microbes as biofertilizers is considered to some extent an alternative to chemical fertilizers in agricultural sector due to their extensive potentiality in enhancing crop production and food safety. It has been observed that some microorganisms including plant growth promoting bacteria, fungi, Cyanobacteria, etc. have showed biofertilizer-like activities in the agricultural sector. Extensive works on biofertilizers have revealed their capability of providing required nutrients to the crop in sufficient amounts that resulted in the enhancement of crop yield. The present review elucidates various mechanisms that have been exerted by biofertilizers in order to promote plant growth and also provides protection against different plant pathogens. The aim of this review is to discuss the important roles and applications of biofertilizers in different sectors including agriculture, bioremediation, and ecology.

  2. Handling Uncertain Gross Margin and Water Demand in Agricultural Water Resources Management using Robust Optimization

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chaerani, D.; Lesmana, E.; Tressiana, N.

    2018-03-01

    In this paper, an application of Robust Optimization in agricultural water resource management problem under gross margin and water demand uncertainty is presented. Water resource management is a series of activities that includes planning, developing, distributing and managing the use of water resource optimally. Water resource management for agriculture can be one of the efforts to optimize the benefits of agricultural output. The objective function of agricultural water resource management problem is to maximizing total benefits by water allocation to agricultural areas covered by the irrigation network in planning horizon. Due to gross margin and water demand uncertainty, we assume that the uncertain data lies within ellipsoidal uncertainty set. We employ robust counterpart methodology to get the robust optimal solution.

  3. The Impact of Agriculture and Tourism Potentials on Sustainable ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The rural areas, which inhabit the greater proportion of the population, mostly in developing nations, are the main sources of primary products (agriculture and minerals) for urban and industrial areas, hence the rural dwellers are regarded as the set of population that provide engine of in the development process of a nation ...

  4. Development paths of China's agricultural Pharmaceutical industry under Eco-agriculture background.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Jinkai; Gong, Liutang; Ji, Xi; Zhang, Jin; Miao, Pei

    2014-07-01

    Using pesticides has double effects. On one hand, it contributes to pests control and regulates the growth of crops; On the other hand, it does harm to the environment. To develop ecological agriculture should not only emphasize the output level of agriculture to pursuit of economic efficiency, but also need to keep the ecological environment protected and focus on the social benefits during the development of the industry. As a large agricultural country in the world, China is vigorously promoting the development of ecological agriculture, which is bound to put forward to developing the pesticide industry and green ecological development requirements to promote the transformation and upgrading of agricultural pharmaceutical industry. This paper discusses the mechanism of pesticide pollution on the ecological environment and analyzes China's agricultural problems in the pharmaceutical industry. Then study on the development of Chinese green pesticides and try to find the proper paths of agricultural pharmaceutical to achieve industrial upgrading.

  5. Large-Scale Agriculture and Outgrower Schemes in Ethiopia

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Wendimu, Mengistu Assefa

    , the impact of large-scale agriculture and outgrower schemes on productivity, household welfare and wages in developing countries is highly contentious. Chapter 1 of this thesis provides an introduction to the study, while also reviewing the key debate in the contemporary land ‘grabbing’ and historical large...... sugarcane outgrower scheme on household income and asset stocks. Chapter 5 examines the wages and working conditions in ‘formal’ large-scale and ‘informal’ small-scale irrigated agriculture. The results in Chapter 2 show that moisture stress, the use of untested planting materials, and conflict over land...... commands a higher wage than ‘formal’ large-scale agriculture, while rather different wage determination mechanisms exist in the two sectors. Human capital characteristics (education and experience) partly explain the differences in wages within the formal sector, but play no significant role...

  6. Bioremediation of a Petroleum-Hydrocarbon Polluted Agricultural ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    A combination of field cells involving a control and five treatment cells were evaluated under field conditions in the bioremediation of a petroleum- hydrocarbon polluted agricultural soil over a six-week period. Previous works have indicated that crude oil contamination of soils depletes oxygen reserves in the soils and slows ...

  7. Agricultural Mechanics Laboratory Management Professional Development Needs of Wyoming Secondary Agriculture Teachers

    Science.gov (United States)

    McKim, Billy R.; Saucier, P. Ryan

    2011-01-01

    Accidents happen; however, the likelihood of accidents occurring in the agricultural mechanics laboratory is greatly reduced when agricultural mechanics laboratory facilities are managed by secondary agriculture teachers who are competent and knowledgeable. This study investigated the agricultural mechanics laboratory management in-service needs…

  8. Agricultural Intensification in the Brazilian Agricultural-Forest Frontier: Land Use Responses to Development and Conservation Policy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Garrett, R.; Koh, I.; le Polain de Waroux, Y.; Lambin, E.; Kastens, J.; Brown, J. C.

    2017-12-01

    Agricultural expansion, extensive cattle ranching, and deforestation remain pressing challenges for sustainable development and climate mitigation throughout South America. In response to these challenges, national and local governments, as well as private and non-governmental actors have developed new forest conservation governance mechanisms. The objective of this study is to better understand how conservation policies interact with supply chain development to influence land use. In particular, we endeavor to understand the timing and spatial patterns of crop and cattle intensification, an understudied phenomenon that is critical to understanding the future of agricultural-forest frontiers and the impacts of conservation policies. We focus on Mato Grosso, the largest soy and cattle producing state in Brazil, which spans the Cerrado and Amazon biomes and has experienced higher levels of deforestation for agricultural expansion than any other state globally over the last decade. Using a newly created spatially explicit data set of land use intensity, supply chain development, and forest policy, we find that agricultural intensification is occurring rapidly in the region, but is only partially driven by changes in conservation policies. The intensification of cattle production is the result of improvements in deforestation monitoring, penalties, and enforcement, and increased land scarcity. Crop intensification, in contrast, preceded increases in conservation restrictions, and is associated with the positive spillovers resulting from agribusiness agglomeration and development. These results suggest that intensification is not a foregone conclusion of increasing forest conservation restrictions, but is highly dependent on wider development processes. A combined effort to direct agribusiness development away from forest regions via tax credits and subsidized credit, when applied in concert with stringent conservation requirements, could help promote intensification

  9. Comparative review of multifunctionality and ecosystem services in sustainable agriculture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Jiao; Tichit, Muriel; Poulot, Monique; Darly, Ségolène; Li, Shuangcheng; Petit, Caroline; Aubry, Christine

    2015-02-01

    Two scientific communities with broad interest in sustainable agriculture independently focus on multifunctional agriculture or ecosystem services. These communities have limited interaction and exchange, and each group faces research challenges according to independently operating paradigms. This paper presents a comparative review of published research in multifunctional agriculture and ecosystem services. The motivation for this work is to improve communication, integrate experimental approaches, and propose areas of consensus and dialog for the two communities. This extensive analysis of publication trends, ideologies, and approaches enables formulation of four main conclusions. First, the two communities are closely related through their use of the term "function." However, multifunctional agriculture considers functions as agricultural activity outputs and prefers farm-centred approaches, whereas ecosystem services considers ecosystem functions in the provision of services and prefers service-centred approaches. Second, research approaches to common questions in these two communities share some similarities, and there would be great value in integrating these approaches. Third, the two communities have potential for dialog regarding the bundle of ecosystem services and the spectrum of multifunctional agriculture, or regarding land sharing and land sparing. Fourth, we propose an integrated conceptual framework that distinguishes six groups of ecosystem services and disservices in the agricultural landscape, and combines the concepts of multifunctional agriculture and ecosystem services. This integrated framework improves applications of multifunctional agriculture and ecosystem services for operational use. Future research should examine if the framework can be readily adapted for modelling specific problems in agricultural management. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  10. The non-agricultural areas of Canada and radioactivity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Meyerhof, Dorothy; Marshall, Heather

    1990-01-01

    Approximately 90% of the Canadian land mass is non-agricultural. It is a source of food to native peoples and sport hunters. Although agricultural areas have been extensively monitored for the transfer of radionuclides through the food chain, very little work has been done on radionuclides in the natural environment in Canada. The exceptions are specific problems such as radiocesium in the lichen-caribou food chain in the Arctic and natural radioactivity in the vicinity of uranium mines. A systematic study of natural food chains is being initiated. This paper presents the results of the study so far and proposed future directions. (author)

  11. The integrated hydroelectric uses in brazilian agricultural projects

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Martinez, M.L.B.; Violin, A.; Martinez, C.B.; Lima, C.M.B.

    1990-01-01

    This work aims to analyse the advances for the implementation of PCH's in agricultural projects, and advice of interconnection with the local sub-transmission system, in order to maximize the return of the installation investing capital. Also a study case is presented. (author)

  12. Urban Agriculture Guide

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Visser, A.J.; Jansma, J.E.; Dekking, A.J.G.; Klieverik, M.J.M.

    2007-01-01

    The Urban Agriculture Guide describes the experiences, learning moments, tips and tricks of those involved in the initiatives of urban agriculture and an indication is provided of what is required to develop urban agriculture further in the Netherlands

  13. Hinkley Point 'C' power station public inquiry: proof of evidence on agriculture

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Worthington, T.R.

    1988-09-01

    A public inquiry has been set up to examine the planning application made by the Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB) for the construction of a 1200 MW Pressurized Water Reactor power station at Hinkley Point (Hinkley Point ''C'') in the United Kingdom. Agricultural land will need to be acquired for the proposed construction both on a temporary and permanent basis. The CEGB evidence to the Inquiry identifies the land which will be permanently lost for agricultural purposes and that which could eventually be returned to agriculture. All the land required is on a single holding but should leave a viable area to be farmed. The farming business would be compensated for loss of profits. (UK)

  14. Environmental sub models for a macroeconomic model: agricultural contribution to climate change and acidification in Denmark.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jensen, Trine S; Jensen, Jørgen D; Hasler, Berit; Illerup, Jytte B; Andersen, Frits M

    2007-01-01

    Integrated modelling of the interaction between environmental pressure and economic development is a useful tool to evaluate environmental consequences of policy initiatives. However, the usefulness of such models is often restricted by the fact that these models only include a limited set of environmental impacts, which are often energy-related emissions. In order to evaluate the development in the overall environmental pressure correctly, these model systems must be extended. In this article an integrated macroeconomic model system of the Danish economy with environmental modules of energy related emissions is extended to include the agricultural contribution to climate change and acidification. Next to the energy sector, the agricultural sector is the most important contributor to these environmental themes and subsequently the extended model complex calculates more than 99% of the contribution to both climate change and acidification. Environmental sub-models are developed for agriculture-related emissions of CH(4), N(2)O and NH(3). Agricultural emission sources related to the production specific activity variables are mapped and emission dependent parameters are identified in order to calculate emission coefficients. The emission coefficients are linked to the economic activity variables of the Danish agricultural production. The model system is demonstrated by projections of agriculture-related emissions in Denmark under two alternative sets of assumptions: a baseline projection of the general economic development and a policy scenario for changes in the husbandry sector within the agricultural sector.

  15. Agriculture for improved nutrition: the current research landscape.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Turner, Rachel; Hawkes, Corinna; Jeff, Waage; Ferguson, Elaine; Haseen, Farhana; Homans, Hilary; Hussein, Julia; Johnston, Deborah; Marais, Debbi; McNeill, Geraldine; Shankar, Bhavani

    2013-12-01

    Concern about food security and its effect on persistent undernutrition has increased interest in how agriculture could be used to improve nutritional outcomes in developing countries. Yet the evidence base for the impact of agricultural interventions targeted at improved nutrition is currently poor. To map the extent and nature of current and planned research on agriculture for improved nutrition in order to identify gaps where more research might be useful. The research, which was conducted from April to August 2012, involved developing a conceptual framework linking agriculture and nutrition, identifying relevant research projects and programs, devising and populating a "template" with details of the research projects in relation to the conceptual framework, classifying the projects, and conducting a gap analysis. The study identified a large number of research projects covering a broad range of themes and topics. There was a strong geographic focus on sub-Saharan Africa, and many studies were explicitly concerned with nutritional impacts on women and children. Although the study revealed a diverse and growing body of research, it also identified research gaps. Few projects consider the entire evidence chain linking agricultural input or practice to nutritional outcomes. There is comparatively little current research on indirect effects of agriculture on nutrition, or the effect of policies or governance, rather than technical interventions. Most research is focused on undernutrition and small farmer households, and few studies target consumers generally, urban populations, or nutrition-related non-communicable diseases. There is very little work on the cost-effectiveness of agricultural interventions. On the basis of these findings, we make suggestions for research investment and for broader engagement of researchers and disciplines in developing approaches to design and evaluate agricultural programs for improved nutrition.

  16. International Survey on agriculture-climate change policy instruments

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Fernagut, M.; Priem, M.; Sorgeloos, L.

    2011-09-15

    The title study provides an international overview of agriculture-climate change policy instruments for the reduction of methane and nitrous oxide emissions. The aim of this study is to clarify how national and/or international agriculture-climate-policies could or should be instrumented during the coming three to five years to achieve significant emission reductions of methane and nitrous oxide in the Dutch agricultural sector by 2020. The study includes an international survey, a quick-scan inventory of useful and inspiring examples of policy and reduction measures to reduce non CO2 greenhouse gases. ERM used an approach consisting out of three phases. In the first phase countries were selected on the basis of emissions and Kyoto protocol targets. In the second phase policy measures of these countries were listed, based on publicly available national and international sources. In a third phase a sub-set of this selection was analyzed in-depth through communications with local focal points and additional review of policy documents, to enhance the understanding of context, impact and results of each of these policies and measures.

  17. U.S.-State Agricultural Data. Agriculture Information Bulletin Number 512.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Womack, Letricia M.; Traub, Larry G.

    This report presents agricultural information for each state and the United States as a whole for the years 1981-1985. Included are data on population, land use, agricultural production, farm income, value of assets on farms, and selected characteristics of farms. The primary data sources are the "1982 Census of Agriculture," the…

  18. Women in agriculture: risks for occupational injury within the context of gendered role.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McCoy, C A; Carruth, A K; Reed, D B

    2002-02-01

    Women continue to make significant contributions to farming. Not only do women participate in the traditional roles of homemaker, caregiver, and wife, they also work side-by-side with their spouses in keeping the farm viable. More daughters are entering the farming business, either as partners with other family members or as independent operators. Each year since the United States Department of Agriculture began including gender in the Census of Agriculture, the percentage of women engaged in agriculture has increased, and women's participation in agriculture is increasing faster than in other business segments. This article examines the role of women in agriculture and how sociocultural, economic, and physical factors may affect women's exposure to injury-producing events and their knowledge and beliefs about injury prevention. To date, few studies have examined work-related unintentional injuries among farm women. Even less is known about the extent to which occupational risks are recognized when women seek medical care. Differences in size and stature, increased physical strain, and low maximal oxygen uptake may predispose women to ergonomic-related injuries. Limitations of current research and recommendations for future analyses are discussed.

  19. Agricultural Ethics, Environmental Ethics, and Bioethics : the Major Issues of Agricultural Ethics

    OpenAIRE

    畠中, 和生

    2002-01-01

    It is the aim of the paper is to make the major issues of agricultural ethics clear by comparing them with the ones of environmental ethics and bioethics. The main topics in this paper are following. 1. The major issues of the debate over agricultural ethics are (1) agricultural threats to public health and safety; (2) government responsibility for controlling agricultural resource depletion; (3) agricultural contributions to ecological disturbance; (4) government responsibility for preservin...

  20. Land Market and Price of the Agricultural Land after the End of the Transitional Period

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dirgasová Katarína

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available After the end of the transition period for the purchase of the agricultural land by foreigners, the legislation regulating the acquisition of the agricultural land was adopted for the purpose of harmonization of the Slovak legislation with the legislation of the European Union. The Law no. 140/2014 Coll. on the acquisition of ownership to the agricultural land and amending and supplementing determines the subjects that are legitimated to acquire the ownership to the agricultural land. In addition, due to the creation of the Register of Offers of the Agricultural Land, the legislation allows the landowner to set a price on the sale of the agricultural land. In Slovakia, apart from the administrative prices and the market prices, there is a new type of prices, so-called „supply price“. The aim of the paper is to sum up the impact of the current legislation on the land market and the prices of agricultural land.