Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / Kevin P. Gwinner / Companies must continue to find ways to not only access new customers, but also better serve and increase loyalty with the current customers they already serve. In an effort to increase customer retention and satisfaction, while improving the company’s bottom line, this study looks at a possible brand extension with AgriGold, a seed company based in Southern Illinois. This study will analyze the feasibility of AgriGold extending its corn-only focus into the soybean market in order to capitalize on the current strength of the U.S. soybean market. The soybean market has drastically evolved over the past several years due to the introduction of several new technologies to increase and preserve yield; in some areas of the U.S., soybeans are now the preferred crop over corn. Through the theory of brand extension and based upon the projected logistics and financial benefits, a recommendation is made for the AgriGold brand. Both internal survey results and financial analysis are used to analyze such an extension. In an expanding soybean acre market and a contracting corn acre market in the US, this study may prove to suggest one of the most important strategic moves in AgriGold's history.

Devido à grande adoção por parte das empresas da estratégia de extensão de marca como base para crescimento, e também à falta de estudos específicos no Brasil sobre as variáveis que podem influenciar o desempenho das extensões de marca realizadas, este estudo se propõe a identificar os fatores críticos para a extensão de marca e suas implicações no sucesso da extensão. Para atingir este objetivo proposto, buscou-se um referencial teórico sobre diferentes temas relacionados à extensão de marca, e conduziu-se uma pesquisa exploratória, qualitativa e com uso do recurso de estudo de caso. A empresa selecionada para o estudo de caso único foi a Castelo Alimentos, onde os dados obtidos nas entrevistas foram analisados a partir de um modelo conceitual proposto sobre os fatores críticos para o sucesso da extensão de marca, formulado com base na pesquisa bibliográfica e agrupado em três tipos: fatores relacionados à empresa, fatores relacionados à marca mãe e fatores relacionados à extensão de marca. Os resultados sugerem que o grau de influência de cada fator varia conforme o tipo de extensão de marca realizada (extensão de linha, extensão de categoria similar, extensão de categoria dissimilar). Ainda, o fator considerado como mais importante para o sucesso da extensão foi o de adequação entre a extensão e a marca mãe; quanto mais similar e consistente a extensão for em relação à marca mãe, maiores chances de sucesso ela terá. Constatou-se também que o valor simbólico da marca e a sequência de realização das extensões são pouco significativos para o sucesso das extensões. Em contrapartida, o suporte para a extensão de marca foi considerado como um fator importante para seu sucesso para todas as extensões de marca analisadas. A partir das conclusões discutidas e levando-se em consideração as limitações do método de pesquisa escolhido, são propostas algumas recomendações às empresas brasileiras que buscam realizar extensões de marca. / Due to the wide adoption by business of the brand extension strategy as the basis for growth, and also to the lack of specific studies in Brazil on the variables that can influence the performance of brand extensions undertaken, this study aims to identify the critical factors for brand extension and its implications for the success of the extension. To achieve this proposed objective, a theoretical basis was sought on different topics related to brand extension, and after, an exploratory and qualitative study was conducted, using the case study method. The company selected for the one case study was Alimentos Castelo, where the data obtained in the interviews was analyzed using a proposed conceptual model on the critical factors for successful brand extension, designed based on the literature and grouped in three types: factors related to the company, factors related to the original brand and factors related to brand extension. The results suggest that the degree of influence of each factor varies depending on the type of brand extension made (line extension, extension to similar category, extension to dissimilar category). Moreover, the factor considered as the most important to the success of the brand extension was the fit between the extension and parent brand - the more similar and consistent the extension is to the parent brand, the greater the chance of success. It was also found that the symbolic value of the brand and the sequence of the extension implementation are not very significant for the success of the extensions. In contrast, support for the brand extension was considered an important factor for the success of all brand extensions analyzed. From the findings discussed and taking into account the limitations of the research method chosen, some recommendations are proposed to Brazilian companies seeking to use brand extensions.

The current knowledge-based economy demands a workforce equipped with the skills to advance innovation through entrepreneurial strategies (Powell & Snellman, 2004). Currently, Extension educators contribute to social and economic development in the sectors of agriculture, natural resource, consumer education, and youth development. Extension educators provide community members with the knowledge and skills needed to obtain a higher quality of life. The strategies of entrepreneurial leadership are relevant to the contemporary work of Extension educators and would provide the opportunity to increase Cooperative Extension’s program planning and implementation success. For the purpose of this study entrepreneurial leadership proclivity is measured through two constructs, innovation and entrepreneurial strategy, in those identified as Cooperative Extension Educators throughout Arizona. The data collected in this study illustrated the lack of entrepreneurial leadership in Extension educators in Arizona, as well as recommends educational possibilities to increase the presence of entrepreneurial leadership.

Quandles are distributive algebraic structures that were introduced by David Joyce [24] in his Ph.D. dissertation in 1979 and at the same time in separate work by Matveev [34]. Quandles can be used to construct invariants of the knots in the 3-dimensional space and knotted surfaces in 4-dimensional space. Quandles can also be studied on their own right as any non-associative algebraic structures. In this dissertation, we introduce f-quandles which are a generalization of usual quandles. In the first part of this dissertation, we present the definitions of f-quandles together with examples, and properties. Also, we provide a method of producing a new f-quandle from a given f-quandle together with a given homomorphism. Extensions of f-quandles with both dynamical and constant cocycles theory are discussed. In Chapter 4, we provide cohomology theory of f-quandles in Theorem 4.1.1 and briefly discuss the relationship between Knot Theory and f-quandles. In the second part of this dissertation, we provide generalized 2,3, and 4- cocycles for Alexander f-quandles with a few examples. Considering “Hom-algebraic Structures” as our nutrient enriched soil, we planted “quandle” seeds to get f-quandles. Over the last couple of years, this f- quandle plant grew into a tree. We believe this tree will continue to grow into a larger tree that will provide future fruit and contributions.

Forms in pocket.

This thesis is the study of the activities of the Agricultural Agents of Canada. As a background to this study the history of the Agricultural Extension Services was investigated and a brief historical record presented. Following the history is a study of the methods used to contact farmers by Agricultural Agents during the ten year period 1952 to 1961. The historical record begins with the "Agricultural Instruction Act" of 1913 which led to agricultural instruction being carried out by each province. When the assistance given under this Act terminated, agricultural instruction was left the responsibility of the provincial governments, and typically, each evolved a separate section to house the Agricultural Extension Service within its Department of Agriculture. Within this section the Agricultural Agents find a great degree of individual freedom but also the responsibility of carrying out many duties, some of which relate little to extension work, and consequently, detract from their effectiveness as Agents. The activities of the Agricultural Agents during the ten years 1952 to 1961 were studied, chiefly from information given in the annual reports of the provincial departments of agriculture, and, in particular, numerical data were sought and accumulated. The numerical data were copied onto key sort punch cards and from thence built into tables for each activity, most of which fell into the three classifications Individual Methods, Group Methods, and Mass Media Methods. With the aim of detecting any changes in the methods used over the ten year period, the first five years were compared with the second five years for each method and the change expressed by the difference as a percentage of the first five years. From these changes general trends and exceptions are perceptible. The interest of farmers in extension was studied and as judged by their requests to Agents per farmer, interest increased by 19.5 per cent. However, at the same time, attendance at group events decreased. The numbers of services for farmers performed by Agents were presented in consideration of the opportunities they provide to contact farmers. The data for the number of times each method of contact was used by Agents in each province were not always complete and this imposed some limitation on the usefulness of the data. However, the number of Agents, and hence the number of times an activity was used per Agent, was available in most cases, and the calculated changes of activities per Agent are apparently indicative of the actual situation. The results of the study show that there was a slight increase of less than one per cent of individual contacts, a decrease of 15.5 per cent of meetings, and 36.7 of other group events, but a great increase in the use of mass media. On a per Agent basis, the average Agent made 5 per cent less individual contacts, organized 13.7 fewer group events, but used mass media more extensively. When the number of contacts per farmer is considered, the increases were greater because of a decrease in number of farms. Individual contacts per farm increased by 10 per cent, meetings decreased by only 7.3 per cent, and the use of mass media per farm showed a greater percentage increase than the percentage increase of mass media events. / Land and Food Systems, Faculty of / Graduate

The department of agricultural extension services (DAES) has been the central implementing agency responsible for agricultural extension services in Malawi. However, since 1990s many changes have taken place leading to the development of new national extension policy, which was launched in 2000, under the heading Agricultural Extension in the New Millennium: Towards Pluralistic and Demand-driven Services in Malawi. This is an opportunity to bring the control of extension closer to the grassroots community. One of the biggest challenges in operationalising the new system is the facilitation of farmers’ involvement at all stages. This may not be achieved without appropriate functional structures from the grassroots community. And in light of the pluralism in extension service delivery, co-ordination of agricultural extension has become another challenge extension has to deal with. The aim of this study was to investigate the level of farmers’ involvement in agricultural extension services, search for an appropriate institutional linkage structure for effective participatory and coordinated agricultural extension as well as identify major factors affecting coordination of pluralistic agricultural extension services in Nkhotakota district. A total of 135 respondents were involved in group interview sessions allowing extensive interaction and discussion before individuals were requested to record their viewpoints regarding various alternatives in documents (questionnaires) prepared for that purpose and which were subsequently analysed. The survey results reveal that agricultural extension has not been very participatory and the level of farmers’ involvement is very low. What is positive, however, is the high degree of willingness of farmers to be involved in agricultural extension. This is an opportunity that extension organisations must take advantage of. The survey found wide scale support (87.2 percent) for the necessity of a proposed community linkage structure, which, as a mouthpiece, represents the community, coordinates its interests and programmes and functions in partnership with the service provider(s). This allows for a partnership relationship that lead towards the empowerment of the communities to take ownership of the development process.. There is support also for the identified principles regarding this proposed linkage structure. These include a clear differentiation between the coordinating and operational functions and a positioning of the structures as close to the grassroots community as possible, but not to the level of unnecessary duplication and consequently poor coordination. There is general agreement that coordination should not be limited to one commodity or even agriculture, but should be all embracing. Some reservation in this regard can be attributed to fear of agriculture being marginalised. For a country that relies predominantly on agriculture care should be taken to ensure that this does not happen. In general, farmers are more supportive of the principles of effective linkage structures than the service providers. According to the results, coordination of extension among service providers is still poor, but is likely to increase as the policy of pluralism and decentralization continues to unfold. Copyright / Dissertation (MSc Agric (Agricultural Extension))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural development / unrestricted

Thesis advisor: Ian Biringer / We are interested in proving the following statement: Given a 3-manifold M with boundary and a homeomorphism of the boundary f : ∂M → ∂M such that there is some power that extends to M, there is some k depending only on the genus g(∂M) and some l < k such that ƒᶩ extends to M. We will prove that the power needed to extend is not uniformly bounded with some examples, we will prove the statement is true if M is boundary incompressible and we will show that the general statement reduces to effectivising some technical results about pure homeomorphisms extending to compression bodies. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2020. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Mathematics.

The following report presents the preliminary design and prototype development phase of a technology insertion program implemented by this author to extend the service life and to improve the performance of the United States Navy's Bathythermograph Data Recorder System onboard Submarines (AN/BQH-7) and Surface Ships (AN/BQH-7A). The performance upgrade will increase the Fleet User's ability to measure sonar performance and will provide more accurate salinity measurements used for submarine ballasting and control. This project is unique not necessarily because Commercial-off-the-Shelf (COTS) and Non-Developmental Item (NDI) componentry is being used but because the focus is on developing a systems engineering process model for (1) the implementation of COTS and NDI technologies in an open systems architecture environment, (2) a maintenance, sparing, and life cycle support model for COTS and NDI programs, and (3) a periodic technology insertion plan for keeping pace with COTS and NDI technology advances and configuration changes. It is intended that this report be used in the future as a good example of the successful implementation of Acquisition Reform and DoD 5000.2B initiatives. / Master of Science

Impact evaluation (IE) has become a major focus of Extension program evaluation during the past three decades, yet Extension professionals continue to struggle to produce well-documented evidence of program impacts (Lamm, 2011; Workman, 2010). This research was primarily a quantitative, non-experimental correlational study of factors associated with Extension educators’ IE behaviors and practices in the North Central Region of the Cooperative Extension service. The study employed a comprehensive, systems approach to explore interrelated individual and organizational factors that affect IE in Extension. A major feature of this research design was the use Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) statistical analysis methodology. The use of SEM to organize and implement this study facilitated simultaneous exploration of many constructs theorized to be involved in IE behaviors in the context of Extension educational program evaluation. Specification of a theoretical, conceptual model to be used to frame the potential relationships among the many constructs and factors was necessary prior to data collection in order to be able to use SEM for data analysis. Data were analyzed using SEM path analysis to determine relationships among the factors. Significant findings included the identification of the most influential factors on the dependent variable of actual IE behaviors. These were: competency by perceived skill level, behavioral intention, number of roles in IE, education level, and attitude. Factors exhibiting noteworthy influence on factors other than the dependent variable within the model included training, culture, and proportion of teamwork. Qualitative data themes most frequently mentioned by participants included: the need to know how to measure change; a need for training in general; a need for better planning of programs to achieve impact; conflicting priorities, lack of time and timing/coordination concerns; changing expectations (“moving target”) regarding IE practices and goals; and diverseness in contexts, competencies, and schedules. Study findings identified a number of influential factors not previously cited in literature, including number of roles in IE; proportion of teamwork employed in IE; a lack of understanding of how to measure change; and issues of diverseness regarding competencies, context (including stakeholder expectations), and scheduling within the Extension organization.