The analysis of the decision-making process in agricultural enterprises is approached with the development of a methodology based upon two stages: firstly we enlarge our knowledge of the system under study by performing grouping operation cluster analysis of the farm enterprises. The result of this stage is to classify farms according to crop pattern, which is the basis for the second stage of ...

Rapid urbanization on the coast of China has attracted much attention. The objective of this study was to explore the differences in dynamics and related driving forces between urban and rural settlements. Applying the quantitative method, we demonstrate that substantial heterogeneity in settlement growth, landscape pattern metrics, change, land sources and driving forces is exhibited across th...

A one-year prospective survey was conducted to study the incidence of and potential risk factors for farm-related injuries in Eastern Ontario. One hundred and seventeen dairy and beef farms were surveyed using a personal interview. Information was collected on demographic characteristics of the farm owners, workers, and families; characteristics of the farm operations; and information on behavi...

Body condition score has been proposed as an additional trait in New Zealand’s national breeding objective. To be considered for inclusion, genetic parameters and an economic value are required. We propose genetic evaluation of body condition score using a random regression model that includes 2 order orthogonal Legendre polynomials fitted to the genetic variance and a link function to account ...

Adipose tissue is considered as a major endocrine organ that secretes numerous proteins called adipokines. The heterogeneous nature of adipose tissue in different parts of the body suggests respective heterogeneity of proteomes and secretomes. This review consolidates knowledge from recent studies targeting the diversity of different adipose depots affecting the pattern of secreted adipokines a...

We present the impact of the farms heterogeneily on the promotion of non-commodily outputs on a French case study. We show first that the large heterogeneity of the ratio of the amount of non-commodity and commodity outputs supplied by the farms can 00 captured by aonedimensional parameter: the type of the farm. Second, using the relationship OOtween the amount of non-commodity and commodily ou...

This study analysed factors influencing food security status of female headed farm households in Abia state, Nigeria. Multistage random sampling technique was employed in selecting 240 female headed farm households from whom data were collected using structured questionnaire. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics, food security indices and probit regression technique. Result...

The problem of scheduling parallel applications on Grids is notoriously difficult: schedulers must consider the heterogeneity of involved resources and management systems, and they often require the users to provide information about the expected application behavior. We suggest that increasingly popular structured programming approaches, using components with well-defined semantics, facilitate...

The study examined interest of farmers and insurance companies in farm insurance. The sample consisted of 110 respondents; 100 farmers and 10 insurance companies. The Probit model was used to analyse the effect of factors affecting the willingness of cocoa farmers to accept farm insurance. All of the respondents had ever heard of one or more types of insurance whiles 32% had knowledge of farm i...

OBJECTIVES Exposure to environments rich in microorganisms such as farms has been shown to protect against the development of childhood asthma and allergies. However, it remains unclear where, and how, farm and other rural children are exposed to microbes. Furthermore, the composition of the microbial flora is poorly characterised. We tested the hypothesis that farm children are exposed indoors...