Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / Dustin L. Pendell / Sachse Family Angus is both a commercial and registered Angus cow-calf operation in Northeast Kansas and has been in operation since 1935. The end goal in mind is to provide quality female breeding seedstock to other beef producers with the hopes of improving their herds. Successful selection and development of beef replacement heifers have major long term effects on stayability in any herd and can even have a positive impact on the whole herd. The objective of this study is to create a decision tool to determine best heifer selection strategies. Specifically, taking a look at the cost of heifer development under a range of scenarios as it applies to more traditional heifer development. The depth of literature addressing the issue of buying or raising replacement heifers is vast, providing various degrees of analysis to help a producer make the best informed decision. Some economists would argue that no single aspect of beef production management is as complicated, or has such an economic impact as cow culling and replacement heifer decisions (Melton, 1980). Procedures and methods were created to analyze whether a producer should raise or develop their own replacement heifers. One method used in creating a decision tool is an enterprise budget. Enterprise budgeting is the systematic determination and listing of expected outputs, revenues, and costs due to the production processes required to produce one unit of an enterprise for a specified time period. To take this one step further, it is assumed a producer makes choices with respect to the combinations of productive factors and products. Partial budgets include an analysis of net returns from small changes or refinement to a ranch. It focuses on parts that change while building upon an enterprise budget. In essence, it fine tunes current operations while holding all else constant. The benefits of partial budgeting take a look at what will be the new or added revenue if a change is implemented on the ranch and what costs will be reduced or eliminated if taken place. What will be the new or added costs and what revenues will be reduced if a change takes place are also things to keep in mind. Therefore, the result will show a producer the net benefit of the change. In turn, Sachse Family Angus will use this information to build their registered and commercial replacement heifers either by developing their own or purchasing from other breeders. Overtime, this decision will be critical as it will impact their herd for years to come. In conclusion, maintaining a good sound, high functioning beef cow herd means selecting and developing quality replacement heifers to retain in the herd each year. An estimated 20% of heifers born each year at Sachse Family Angus are kept as replacement heifers. When managing home raised heifers or purchased heifers, maintaining costs and keeping them in check is crucial because they represent a large up-front investment. The bottom line of this research is to give the managers at Sachse Family Angus and other operations across the country a decision tool that can be used to analyze their current resources and the resources it will take to develop their own heifers successfully and in the most cost effective way or help them analyze if purchasing their heifers makes the most financial sense.

Using a sequential mixed-method methodology, this dissertation study set out to understand the emic and etic perspectives of the knowledge encompassed in the technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) framework and to develop fixed answer questions based on that knowledge. While there have been many studies examining ways to measure TPACK in in-service and pre-service teachers, very few have addressed measuring TPACK using fixed-answer questions. Through the use of the mixed-methods, a snapshot of the emic (inside) and etic (outside) perspectives on the TPACK framework was obtained. This study used a focus group with in-service teachers (emic perspective) and interviews with teacher educators (etic perspective) to understand the kind of knowledge attributed to the TPACK framework. Six themes were derived from the focus group and interviews, from which fixed-answer questions were developed. Those six themes included such issues as access to technology, the use of technology for solid teaching and learning purposes, and passive versus active learning when using technology. Following best practices, the eleven questions included a scenario that gave context to the questions asked and the answers provided. In-service teachers reviewed the items to assure that the language and context were appropriate to classroom practice. Four experts on the TPACK framework reviewed the items for face validity. Across the experts six of the eleven items were rated as valid. Although only the experts saw a small number of items as valid, this study indicates that this kind of measurement for the TPACK framework may be possible.

iv Abstract As real estate is an important part of the wealth composition of households, this the impact of the financial stimulus that was observed throughout 2020 and how it might have affected housing prices in various European countries. For this the thesis runs a Vector Error Correction Model with the following independent variables: population, exchange rate, inflation, short-term interest rate, unemployment rate and the compensation of employees. The time frame for this regression is restricted to 2000Q1 to 2019Q4 in order to exclude the housing price development throughout 2020 that is already affected by the financial stimulus. These regression results are then used in combination with the 2020 actuals of all independent variables to approximate the expected housing price without financial stimulus. This gives an indication of a potential overpricing in the markets and provides an understanding of how financial stimulus might be connected to housing prices. Another analysis in this thesis then provides an understanding of the leader-follower relationship of housing prices and rental prices and provides an analysis on how this might be connected to the level of home ownership in a particular market. JEL Classification F62, J11, R30 Keywords Real Estate, Covid-19, Financial Stimulus Title The effect...

Although there is an international vehicular consensus about signing, the maximum speed allowed or connecting the most significant regions together, their nature is different all based on geographical, cultural or social conditions. Rest stops along the roads reflect each country dispositions. Rest stops are the place where different social and national clusters meet. At this moment building up the rest stops is on behalf of the Czech republic which is not that much interested in it. Instead of taking care and maintain them, because the current state of the reststops is not satisfactory, the Czech republic is letting them to the third parties - supranational corporations. This leads to unpleasant lines along the highways accompanying by petrol stations and cheesy fastfoods. There is no place for rest stops without the need of consummation. The Czech republic has currently begun planning and building up new kilometers of highways and the new opportunities of rest stops arise. Because the existing site is overloaded with petrol stations, supranational corporations are no longer interested in these plots. State has an opportunity to take over and redesign these neglected plots on his own.

Health organizations around the world, from international bodies of government to local advocacy groups, are pushing the benefits of breastfeeding. While this is commendable, no study has ever been completed to assess on a regional scale the available policy options and their effectiveness at producing increased breastfeeding rates. It is my contention that five key factors influence the effectiveness of breastfeeding policies in Europe; Acceptance of public breastfeeding, maternity resource commitment, legal protection of breastfeeding in public and business space, a united voice in favor of breastfeeding, and limitations to formula advertisements in hospitals on media outlets. These five factors influence how successfully mothers navigate public and private space as they choose to breastfeed their children. In my effort to assess the contextual factors and policies that create an environment conducive to long term breastfeeding rates I am also interested in discovering a set of factors that do not increase the economic vulnerability of women. The emperical analysis derived from data from the WomanStats Database found that a combination of five conditions; social acceptance of public breastfeeding, maternal resource commitment, legal protection of breastfeeding, united voice in favor of breastfeeding, and laws regulating the sale of formula were all necessary in order to produce higher breastfeeding rates in Europe. The data also shows that when countries pursue these five factors female income disparity is not negatively impacted.

Considerable media research has established that much of mainstream, United States based news is historically rife with content that both implicitly and explicitly reinforces popular cultural norms. Combined with a history full of inequities towards marginalized groups, many of which were based on race, consumption of mainstream news has been linked to increased hostility and more negative attitudes towards non-Whites in the United States. That said, much of this work views news from a monolithic perspective of news programming, irrespective of the differences in political orientation or broadcast integrity. By using quantitative assessments of how various mainstream news programs score on both left/right and fact/opinion-based dichotomies, the purpose of the present study is to address these gaps. As models for how mainstream news consumption is related to existing race-related attitudes, theoretical foundations of cultivation theory (how long viewers watch), the motivation and opportunities model (if viewers are motivated in their viewing) and social ecology theory (who viewers are), were used in relation to these dichotomies. However, overall results suggest that, while time spent with news, race, and gender appear to affect news consumption's relationship with race-related attitudes, preference for left vs. right wing news and fact vs. opinion-based was less relevant, with marginal effect sizes at best. Implications and future directions considering these results are discussed.

Energy issues are today in high priority nationally and internationally as its impact on the environment and climate has become increasingly apparent. The real estate sector accounts for 34 % of Sweden's total energy consumption, where 70 % goes to heating apartment buildings. In order to create a more energy-efficient and climate-smart society, the EU Commission has set the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55 % relative to levels from 1990. Furthermore, Sweden's Riksdag decided to reduce energy use in buildings by 50 % by 2050 relative to 1995 levels. In order to reach the goals, technical solutions that can reduce energy losses in buildings are required, among other things. Furthermore, there is an undesirable energy transport via cold bridges that occur in the building's climate shell. The study deals with the combination of cast-in vs-pipes with an adjacent balcony where linear thermal bridges occur.  The purpose of the study was to gain an increased understanding of the heat release from vs pipes with an adjacent balcony slab. The goal is to produce temperature profiles over the system, the vs pipes' heat output and how large a proportion the building can absorb, energy losses via the balcony plate and its climate impact in the form of carbon dioxide equivalents. Measures such as pipe insulation, use of egcobox and the laying of the pipes were investigated. Using the simulation tool Comsol Multiphysics, the study has modeled a transient system where temperature and wind data are retrieved for Karlstad. Four basic cases (egcobox+ with/without insulation, without egcobox + with/without insulation) were examined where the placement of the pipes was varied relative to the inside wall. Outdoor temperature and wind speed were obtained from SMHI on an hourly basis and the supply temperature of the pipes was varied with respect to the outdoor temperature where the return flow received a 10 ᵒC lower temperature. The results of the study showed that heat release for uninsulated and insulated pipes maintained an effect of 49 W/m and 11 W/m at 55 ᵒC where the difference was shown for the energy losses via the balcony plate. Going from uninsulated to insulated pipes could reduce energy losses via the balcony slab by up to 36%. By moving the pipes further into the room, the losses could be reduced by up to 57%. By increasing the laying of the pipes from 2 - 12 dm, the change in relation to other measures made a big impact. At a laying of approximately 3 m, the energy losses via the balcony plate were of a similar order of magnitude as if the pipes had not been in the joist. To further reduce losses, insulation or egcobox had to be used. The percentage of credited energy from the heat output of the pipes without egcobox was as low as 72 and 80% for insulated and non-insulated pipes, respectively, to approach 100% with increasing installation. With the help of measures such as insulation and egcobox, energy savings for a property can reach up to 5.4 percentage points, which increases the energy performance of apartments with a balcony. When using egcobox, the percentage landed at 84 and 88% for individual and non-insulated pipes, respectively, and then rose in step with increased installation. The climate impact had a linear relationship with energy savings, where an increased location could reduce a property's emissions by up to 1 ton of CO2-eq/year. By taking measures for the thermal bridge problem, the real estate sector can reduce its energy consumption and its climate impact for future projects

This study compared feed lot finished beef and grazing standing corn beef from young steers for sensory acceptance, sensory quantitative descriptive analysis attributes palatability and Warner–Bratzler shear force values. In comparing both feeding treatments results indicated no differences (P > 0.05) between feeding treatments for all attributes including appearance, aroma (with handheld) and (with sniff bottle), texture, flavor and basic taste. However, there was difference (P < 0.05) in flavor, offlavor for different feeding systems by panelists. Analysis of variance for Warner- Bratzler shear force values revealed no differences (P > .05) between steaks from two treatments. Based on this research, the meat industry may wish to provide the consumer with the option of choosing beef that was traditionally feed lot finished or beef finished by grazing standing corn. Thus, grazing standing corn beef producers could utilize a practicable alternative feeding system with niche market appeal to represent a viable production option.

Using an integrated dataset comprising outcrop, core, GPR and LiDAR data, this study targets a high-quality outcrop "window" of the upper Cretaceous Blackhawk Formation in the eastern Wasatch Plateau in central Utah, spanning a fairly large spatial (~30 km2 area comprising eight contiguous, and vertical cliff faces) and temporal (~4 my) range. This research provides field-validation and -calibration of a wider range of fluvial heterogeneity: 1) large-scale heterogeneity (10’s of m vertically and 100’s of m laterally), 2) intermediate-scale heterogeneity (1’s of m vertically and 10’s of m laterally), and 3) small-scale heterogeneity (10’s of cm vertically and 1’s of m laterally). These sandbody- to facies-scale heterogeneities generate potential for stratigraphic compartmentalization for analogous fluvial reservoirs and prospects. Moreover, these results specifically constitute an outcrop analog to the producing tight-gas fluvial reservoirs of the adjacent hydrocarbon-prolific Uinta and Piceance Basins of Utah and Colorado, including the giant Jonah Field of Wyoming. 3D virtual outcrop model generated from LiDAR-integration has helped in avulsion-scale (~1's-10's kyr) to basin-fill scale (~100's kyr-1's myr) fluvial sandbody organization analysis down to channel-storey level. This high-resolution analysis has brought several intriguing insights. single-storey sandbodies are preferentially attendant to clustering organization, whereas multi-lateral sandbodies (i.e. channel-belt) show compensational-prone behavior. Sandbody organization is broadly compensational for the lower Blackhawk Formation, where the floodplain facies diversity is the highest. In contrast, floodplain diversity decreases stratigraphically upward such that the upper Blackhawk Formation shows the least heterogeneous floodplain with clustering-prone sandbody organization. In the quest of differentiating autogenic from allogenic signal in dynamic systems where their interplay is complexly intertwined, this study presents two incised-valley examples, where resultant fluvial organization has been interpreted, contrary to conventional wisdom, to be preferentially modulated by a dominant controlling mechanism of autogenic forcing. In filling these incised valley deposits, each of which is up to ~15-20 m thick, the dominating behavior of substrate coal compaction as an autogenic mechanism supplanted allogenic forcing (i.e. sea-level fluctuation).

Studiens syfte var att undersöka om det fanns några skillnader i identitet och motivation beroende på kön, ålder (medarbetare) och typ av tjänst (chef vs. medarbetare) där de tre typerna av arbetsrelaterad identitet (yrkesidentitet, organisations identitet och arbetsgrupp identitet) och två typer av motivation inre och yttre motivation (inre = utmaning och nöje, yttre = kompensation och erkännande) undersöktes. Resultatet visade signifikanta skillnader i organisationsidentitet och yrkesidentitet mellan chefer och medarbetare, där chefer identifierade sig mer med organisationen och sitt yrke än medarbetare. Chefer visade sig även ha en högre inre motivation (utmaning) än medarbetare. Vad det gäller gruppen medarbetare identifierade sig män i högre grad med arbetsgruppen och organisationen än vad kvinnorna gjorde. / The purpose of this study was to examine if there are any differences in work-related identity and work motivation depending on gender, age (employees) and type of employment (executive vs. employee) where three types of identity (professional identity, organizational identity and workgroup identity) and two types of motivation, inner and external motivation (inner=challenge and entertainment, external=compensation and recognition) were examined. The result showed significant differences in organizational identity and professional identity between executives and employees, where executives identified more with the organization and had a higher level of professional identity. Among the employees, there was a significant gender difference: men identified more with the organization and the work group than women.