Producing More Milk on Fewer Farms: Neoclassical and Neostructural Explanations of Changes in Dairy Farming1

Neoclassical theory in economics has served as the guiding paradigm for agricultural development in the United States. At one level, this model emphasizes the substitution of capital in the form of machinery and chemicals for land and labor. At another level, the paradigm calls for the introduction of mass production techniques, such as product standardization and the routinization of labor processes. Using data on dairy farms and dairy processors from the 50 states, the neoclassical model accounts for changes in productivity on dairy farms; however, the model is less useful in accounting for changes in dairy farm structure. To explain changes in structure, recent neostructural theory that links the structure of markets to the structure of production is used. It is concluded that persistence of family-size dairy farms may rest more on developing and protecting markets for the milk they produce than with tinkering with the neoclassical model.     

The Role of Family and Friends in Return Migration and Its Labor Market Outcomes

Population Research and Policy Review - Drawing on survey data on individuals’ motives for migration in Sweden (N?=?2172), we examine the importance of family and friends for...     

Predicting tree species richness in urban forests

There has been an increasing interest in urban forests and the levels of biodiversity they contain. Currently there are no spatially explicit maps of tree species richness in urban areas. This research tests and identifies GIS and remote sensing metrics (climate, area, productivity, three-dimensional structure) hypothesized to be associated with species richness in native forests and identifies methods that can be applied to predict and map tree species richness in cities. We quantified tree species richness, floristic composition, and structure in 28 1-ha plots in the city of Los Angeles. Climate and remote sensing metrics from high-resolution aerial imagery (10 cm), QuickBird (60 cm), Landsat (30 m), MODIS (250 m), and airborne lidar (2 m) were collected for each plot. There were 1208 individual stems and 108 trees identified to species. Species richness ranged from 2 to 31 species per ha and averaged 17 species per ha. Tree canopy cover from QuickBird explained the highest portion of variance (54%) in tree species richness followed by NDVI from Landsat (42%). Tree species richness can be higher in residential urban forests than native forests in the United States. Spatially explicit species richness maps at 1 ha can be created and tested for cities in order to identify both hotspots and coldspots of tree species richness and changes in species richness over time.     

Structural Equation Modeling: An Innovation for Doctoral Social Work Curricula

Abstract

This article offers guidelines for learning and teaching structural equation modeling (SEM). The essential ingredients of an introductory course are presented on the basis of the authors' experience teaching SEM over the past two years. Also discussed are successful and unsuccessful methods of instruction, a practical way to organize the course, and a means to integrate this material into doctoral social work curricula. Teaching SEM can be a practical and worthwhile way to ensure that the profession will have well-trained researchers.     

Stressors and life goals of caregivers of individuals with disabilities

Caregivers of individuals with disabilities can experience stress as they manage caregiving responsibilities while they attempt to balance family, work, and the satisfaction of their personal goals. In this pilot study, 31 caregivers of individuals with a variety of disabilities completed a quantitative-qualitative survey. A statistically significant relationship was found between the age and severity of disability of the family member receiving care, the length of time care had been provided, the educational level and the relationship of the caregiver to the family member and reported feelings of optimism, humbleness, quality of family relationships, financial concerns, loss of control, and hope. When life goals were probed, the most common reported were achieving financial stability, having a strong, healthy family, and experiencing happiness. The implications for supporting caregivers and their families are discussed.     

Divergence in Age Patterns of Mortality Change Drives International Divergence in Lifespan Inequality

In the past six decades, lifespan inequality has varied greatly within and among countries even while life expectancy has continued to increase. How and why does mortality change generate this diversity? We derive a precise link between changes in age-specific mortality and lifespan inequality, measured as the variance of age at death. Key to this relationship is a young–old threshold age, below and above which mortality decline respectively decreases and increases lifespan inequality. First, we show for Sweden that shifts in the threshold’s location have modified the correlation between changes in life expectancy and lifespan inequality over the last two centuries. Second, we analyze the post–World War II (WWII) trajectories of lifespan inequality in a set of developed countries—Japan, Canada, and the United States—where thresholds centered on retirement age. Our method reveals how divergence in the age pattern of mortality change drives international divergence in lifespan inequality. Most strikingly, early in the 1980s, mortality increases in young U.S. males led to a continuation of high lifespan inequality in the United States; in Canada, however, the decline of inequality continued. In general, our wider international comparisons show that mortality change varied most at young working ages after WWII, particularly for males. We conclude that if mortality continues to stagnate at young ages yet declines steadily at old ages, increases in lifespan inequality will become a common feature of future demographic change.     

Selecting Indicators for Assessing Community Sustainable Resilience

Communities are complex systems subject to a variety of hazards that can result in significant disruption to critical functions. Community resilience assessment is rapidly gaining popularity as a means to help communities better prepare for, respond to, and recover from disruption. Sustainable resilience, a recently developed concept, requires communities to assess system‐wide capability to maintain desired performance levels while simultaneously evaluating impacts to resilience due to changes in hazards and vulnerability over extended periods of time. To enable assessment of community sustainable resilience, we review current literature, consolidate available indicators and metrics, and develop a classification scheme and organizational structure to aid in identification, selection, and application of indicators within a dynamic assessment framework. A nonduplicative set of community sustainable resilience indicators and metrics is provided that can be tailored to a community's needs, thereby enhancing the ability to operationalize the assessment process.