University of Minnesota, Duluth
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Exploration and Practice of the "One-Student-Two-Tutors" Community through Integrating "1+3 Teaching Resources" into Undergraduate Experimental Teaching
No full textThis study closely follows the spirit of the first class undergraduate education action plan (2021-2025) of University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, combines with the national first-class undergraduate professional training plan of mechanical design and manufacturing and automation, and carries out the exploration and practice of "1+3 teaching resources" integrating into the "One-Student-Two-Tutors" community of undergraduate experimental teaching. On the basis of creating a good learning environment and creating an excellent learning platform, this paper studies the undergraduate experimental teaching of the trinity of "theoretical courses+experimental courses+innovation and entrepreneurship activities, discipline competitions, and scientific research project activities". This study has a certain reference value for colleges and universities to cultivate outstanding engineering talents with happy learning attitude, scientific research interest, practical ability and innovative ability
Research Progress of Organic Selenium in Animal Nutrition
No full textSelenium, an essential trace element that is critical for animal health, primarily exists in nature in both inorganic and organic forms. Inorganic selenium exhibits high toxicity, whereas organic selenium is noteworthy due to its reduced toxicity and enhanced bioavailability. In the field of animal feeding, the incorporation of organic selenium has been shown to markedly enhance various aspects of animal performance, including immunity, fertility, antioxidant capacity, and meat quality. Furthermore, it can contribute to a reduction in farming costs while simultaneously improving the overall quality of animal products. Selenium deficiencies can lead to the onset of various diseases in animals, in addition to causing stunted growth and diminished reproductive performance. This paper presents a thorough review of the existing research on the application of organic selenium in animal nutrition. Additionally, it investigates the potential for integrating modern technology with selenium, with a specific emphasis on the prospective use of nano-selenium as a novel source of selenium. The objective of this study is to establish a foundational reference for the role of selenium in the field of animal nutrition research and its practical applications
Strategic Policy Alternatives to Support Conservation Practices
No full textThe goal of this policy brief is to assess the economic and environmental impacts of alternative policy designs for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) to promote agricultural conservation practices in the presence of voluntary private carbon initiatives
Farm Investments of Life Insurance Companies, 1958
No full textExcerpts: Life Insurance companies were somewhat less active in the farm credit field in 1956 and 1957. The industry, however, continued to be a major source of farm-mortgage credit and on January 1, 1958 it held $2,579 million in farm-mortgage debt – nearly one-fourth of the total outstanding and 4 percent more than a year earlier. The increase in outstanding farm mortgages of life insurance companies continued at a slow rate in 1958. According to estimates of the Institute of Life Insurance, it amounted to about 2 percent in the first 6 months of the year. In 1956 and 1957, rising Interest rates on alternative investments and competition from these Investments for available funds reduced the amount of farm-mortgage loans made by life Insurance companies. But by mid-1958, it appeared that the downward trend in farm-mortgage loans made by life insurance companies bad been reversed and that farm-mortgage lending by these companies was Increasing
Nature-Based, Unconventional, and Innovative Water Management Solutions for Sustainable Agriculture
No full textThroughout the webinar, speakers gave examples of how technologies like solar-powered irrigation, ecological restoration projects, compost application, and genetically modified drought-tolerant crops can tangibly improve water use efficiency and resilience in agriculture. Insights were also shared around guidelines and policies intended to enable the safe reuse of water
Foreign Holdings of U.S. Agricultural Land Through December 31, 2024
No full textReport Summary: Foreign investors held an interest in over 46 million acres of U.S. agricultural land (forest land and farmland) as of December 31, 2024. This is an increase of over 1.3 million acres from the December 31, 2024 report which reflected data as of December 31, 2023 and represents 3.6 percent of all privately held agricultural land in the United States. These and other findings are based on information submitted to the U.S. Department of Agriculture in compliance with the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978. Forest land accounted for 47 percent of all reported foreign-held acreage, cropland for 29 percent, pasture and other agricultural land for 22 percent, and nonagricultural land for 2 percent. Foreign holdings of U.S. agricultural land increased modestly from 2012 through 2017, increasing an average of 0.6 million acres per year. Since 2017, foreign holdings have increased an average of over 2.4 million acres annually, ranging from 1.3 million acres to nearly 3.4 million acres per year
Documentation for the Agri-Food Economic Data System (Ag-FEDS): Multiplier Model Applications
No full textThe Agri-Food Economic Data System (Ag-FEDS) is an integrated system of economic data that elaborates the linkages between all production and consumption activities throughout the U.S. economy. This data system incorporates developments to provide the most complete accounting of the U.S. food economy to date and is a flexible modeling platform that supports research in this area. This report makes three extensions to Ag-FEDS in preparation for multiplier analysis: (1) complete passthrough accounting of food commodities, (2) inclusion of non-farm food commodities in the food supply chain, and (3) partitioning import/export commodity flows to avoid re-exporting imports. Ag-FEDS is used as the underlying data source for two food-system-specific multiplier models: the Food Dollar and the Resource Requirements of Food Demand. The multiplier models based on the extended Ag-FEDS data are then derived in this report. The resulting output data of this analysis present greater detail and insights into the U.S. food economyʼs costs and resource use than previously available
Corporate social responsibility: impact of the Pescar Project on the community and a quantile regression approach
No full textCreating social value has become a potential business strategy for companies, and can play a significant role in corporate performance (CP). This study aimed to analyze the transformative evolution in the professional and personal lives of participants in the Pescar Project at a leading multinational company in the sugar-energy sector, located in the interior of the state of São Paulo, and, in parallel, to approach the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and CP using quantile regression. This study followed the progress of a class in the Pescar Project in the mathematics discipline, through questionnaires applied from February 2021 to February 2022, with a one-year period between applications; at the same time, due to inconsistent findings from previous research and the limitations of least squares regressions, quantile regression was used to analyze the relationship between CSR and CP, to verify the impact on the business model of companies funding social projects. This regression was performed using data from 321 companies listed on the official Brazilian stock exchange. The young fishermen, as the project participants were called, showed profound transformations on a personal and professional level. In mathematics, student performance increased by 370%, and quantile regression showed that involvement in CSR activities had a positive impact on DC (Developmental Coefficient). Therefore, it was possible to conclude that CSR appeared to benefit companies, in addition to providing a positive change in the lives of the young participants in the social programs
Social network analysis for Brazilian airports
No full textAir transport in Brazil is experiencing significant growth. Despite the impacts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, a resumption of expansion in this segment has been observed in subsequent years. This study aimed to identify the Brazilian airports with the greatest centrality in the network, in order to better understand the structure and dynamics of air transport in the country. To this end, an analysis of the air network was carried out using the "Social Network Analysis" (SNA) methodology, based on data provided by the National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC). Among the various metrics offered by SNA, centrality, betweenness, and closeness stand out, contributing to the identification of strategic airports. The study considered the network weighted by the number of takeoffs and the number of paying passengers. Among the results obtained, the airports located in the municipalities of Campinas and Brasília were classified as "hubs," used for this purpose by Brazilian airlines. The airports of Manaus and Belém were also highlighted as relevant in the analysis. It was concluded that the Brazilian air network demonstrates the importance of airports of different sizes. This finding indicates the need to explore underutilized routes and improve connectivity to optimize the flight network
Arbitrage between sugar and ethanol in power plants that sell electricity.
No full textGiven that the main composition of the current product portfolio of the sugarcane energy sector in Brazil involves sugar, ethanol, and electricity, the objective of this work is to analyze the influence of electricity production on the total revenue of the plant for typical, but hypothetical, scenarios of variation in the production mix between sugar and ethanol. The main technical data for the composition of the scenarios were taken from scientific works related to the sugarcane energy sector and used in the calculation steps for modeling the scenarios. At the end of the work, a possible opportunity to increase financial revenue from changes in the production mix was identified, and the importance of performing the same analysis for real calculations of arbitrage operations in the sector was demonstrated