Recent data from many countries suggests that this decline in fertility may have slowed for example, the Scandinavian countries have now shown that selection for fertility can result in improvements without major effects on milk yield. However, irrespective of general trends in fertility, there are still large differences between farms, which means that on most farms fertility could be improved...

Pricing actuaries try to anticipate insured lives mortality rates for decades into the future by considering historic relationships between population and insured lives mortality and trends in population mortality. The degree to which underwriting might decrease insured lives mortality relative to population mortality is of particular importance. A comparison of trends in population and insured...

To explore how well the safety net performs at eliminating differences in diagnosis and treatment of insured and uninsured women with breast cancer, we compared insured and uninsured women treated in a safety-net setting. Controlling for socioeconomic characteristics, uninsured women are more likely to be diagnosed with advanced disease, requiring more extensive treatment relative to insured wo...

This study's objective is to provide an alternative explanation for the low enrolment in health insurance in Ghana by analysing differences in perceptions between the insured and uninsured of the non-technical quality of healthcare. It further explores the association between insurance status and perception of healthcare quality to ascertain whether insurance status matters in the perception of...

Aquaculture of the geoduck, Panopea generosaGould, 1850, has increased dramatically during the past decade in southern Puget Sound, WA, and the effects of these intertidal aquaculture geoduck beds on local fauna is mostly unknown. This study examined the species composition, relative abundances, and biodiversity indices of mobile benthic fauna in geoduck farm areas of southern Puget Sound. Surv...

Salmonid farming in Ireland is mostly organic, which implies limited disease treatment options. This highlights the importance of biosecurity for preventing the introduction and spread of infectious agents. Similarly, the effect of local network properties on infection spread processes has rarely been evaluated. In this paper, we characterized the biosecurity of salmonid farms in Ireland using ...

China's dairy farm structure has experienced fundamental changes across farm types. As the number of backyard farms has dramatically declined, the share of dairy cows from backyard farms has decreased by 22.4% from 2003 to 2008. However, the herd numbers of larger dairy farms have increased. In particular, the share of dairy cows has risen by 18.8% on small farms, by 22.2% on medium farms, and ...

We consider a capital-constrained contract-farming supply chain with risk-averse farmer and risk-neutral agro-dealer, where the faces some yield uncertainty that can be covered by insurance. Using Stackelberg model, we derive optimal strategies on insured level, production wholesale price. The result shows farmers low risk aversion tend not to insured, while those high insure. Further analysis ...

KEY FINDINGS Data from the National Health Interview Survey •During 2014, 78.1% of adults aged 18-64 were insured at the time of interview and had been insured for more than a year. •About 6.4% of adults were insured at the time of interview but had a period of no insurance in the past year. •About 12.3% of adults were uninsured at the time of interview and had been uninsured for more than a ye...