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Abstract: Background: Measurement of time to first antibiotic dose (TFAD) in the emergency department (ED) in community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) has been controversial. Objective: To evaluate original articles reporting outcomes in CAP patients before and after TFAD measurement and assess whether it increases antibiotic overuse in non-CAP conditions. Methods: We performed searches using PubMed, addressing two questions: 1) Is the measurement of TFAD associated with improved outcomes in CAP? and 2) Is the measurement of TFAD associated with antibiotic overuse or interventions that could result in overuse in non-CAP conditions? Two independent reviewers assessed studies addressing these questions. Results: Eight studies were identified. All were Grade C or D and of “Adequate” quality: two studies supported TFAD by showing improved outcomes (improved survival in one study and no survival difference but shorter hospital length-of-stay in the second) in CAP patients after the implementation of TFAD; one neutral article reported no difference in survival with improved TFAD timing; five studies opposed TFAD either by showing increases in antibiotic overuse in non-CAP patients, or suggesting that TFAD measurement would promote antibiotic misuse. Conclusion: Given inconsistent evidence to demonstrate that improving TFAD in CAP improves outcomes or that TFAD is associated with antibiotic overuse, a Class C indication has been assigned (not acceptable/not appropriate) for ED TFAD measurement. The American Academy of Emergency Medicine recommends that measurement of TFAD in CAP be discontinued. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The year 2024 marks 20 years since Poland joined the European Union. In this paper, the authors review the economic literature analysing the longterm economic effects of Poland’s membership in the EU. Their study is based on international and Polish literature referring mainly to partial and general equilibrium analyses. They show both the sectoral effects, as related to different EU policies, as well as the overall consequences of membership for the level of welfare of Polish society. The authors first discuss the trade effects in the context of the removal of barriers to the movement of goods within the Single European Market. Next, the consequences of the inflow of funds from the EU budget which finance the country’s structural funds and the Common Agricultural Policy, which are of particular importance to the Polish economy are discussed. A review of the consequences of the inflow of foreign direct investment from EU countries to Poland and the effects of labour migration within the EU is then conducted. A review of the related welfare consequences by aggregating the effects of individual policies and making an overall assessment based on a synthetic control method is then summarised. The authors then refer to their estimations showing that, thanks to EU accession, Poland’s GDP per capita 15 years after accession was higher by almost 55% compared to the counterfactual scenario of non-accession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the solutions to achieve the goal of net-zero emissions by 2050 is to try to reduce the carbon emission by using the carbon tax or carbon credit (carbon right). This paper examines the impact of carbon taxes and carbon credit costs on the cement industry, focusing on ESG indicators and corporate profits. Utilizing Activity-Based Costing and the Theory of Constraints, a production decision model is developed and analyzed using mathematical programming. The paper categorizes carbon tax models into continuous and discontinuous progressive tax rates, taking into account potential government policies like emission tax exemptions and carbon trading. It finds that reducing emission caps is more effective than increasing carbon tax rates in curbing emissions. These insights can assist governments in policy formulation and provide a reference framework for establishing carbon tax systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Distributed replicated databases play a crucial role in modern computer systems enabling scalable, fault-tolerant, and high-performance data management. However, achieving these qualities requires resolving a number of tradeoffs between various properties during system design and operation. This paper reviews trade-offs in distributed replicated databases and provides a survey of recent research papers studying distributed data storage. The paper first discusses a compromise between consistency and latency that appears in distributed replicated data storages and directly follows from CAP and PACELC theorems. Consistency refers to the guarantee that all clients in a distributed system observe the same data at the same time. To ensure strong consistency, distributed systems typically employ coordination mechanisms and synchronization protocols that involve communication and agreement among distributed replicas. These mechanisms introduce additional overhead and latency and can dramatically increase the time taken to complete operations when replicas are globally distributed across the Internet. In addition, we study tradeoffs between other system properties including availability, durability, cost, energy consumption, read and write latency, etc. In this paper we also provide a comprehensive review and classification of recent research works in distributed replicated databases. Reviewed papers showcase several major areas of research, ranging from performance evaluation and comparison of various NoSQL databases to suggest new strategies for data replication and putting forward new consistency models. In particular, we observed a shift towards exploring hybrid consistency models of causal consistency and eventual consistency with causal ordering due to their ability to strike a balance between operations ordering guarantees and high performance. Researchers have also proposed various consistency control algorithms and consensus quorum protocols to coordinate distributed replicas. Insights from this review can empower practitioners to make informed decisions in designing and managing distributed data storage systems as well as help identify existing gaps in the body of knowledge and suggest further research directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Farm to Fork Strategy, which is the center of the green ambitions of the EU, presents indicators for organic farming development and sets ambitious targets. However, most EU Members lag behind, which is raising various questions about implementing the developed strategies and plans. The study aims to observe trends and changes in organic farming with a particular focus on Bulgaria and outline prospects post-2023. The analysis shows an increase in the share of organic UAA in almost all Member-States. In Bulgaria, there are variations, and the share is decreasing in 2021 compared to 2020. The EU emphasizes the importance of organic farming for the food system. Organic farms are eligible for support from several measures for 2023-2027 as a part of national strategic plans under the CAP. On the other hand, implementing the measures has to be efficient and well-targeted to achieve the EU's ambitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we introduce a new dataset to complement the existing evidence on economic inequalities in Poland's rural areas. This important dataset uses annual information on the beneficiaries of income support, which is paid to farmers within the European Common Agricultural Policy and covers the period 2014–2021. The data can be used to analyse the changing distribution of this support at municipality level using conventional inequality measures. Since part of the support is granted per eligible hectare, our data can also serve as a good approximation of land use distribution, and thus allow researchers to scrutinise the changes in the distribution of an important component of the wealth of many people living in rural areas. The paper presents selected findings on the distribution of income support granted to land users in the studied period and suggests potential research areas, for which the presented dataset can provide useful insights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of sustainable development has been attracting the attention of the scientific and professional community for decades. Various researches and papers focused on the concept of sustainability, exploring it through the prism of the economic, ecological and social subsystem. In this paper, the authors focus on agriculture and its sustainability. Starting from the assumption that organic farming is a sustainable system production, the authors turn to institutional support, trying to find a link between EU agricultural policy (CAP) and the growth of areas in organic agriculture. The research showed that this kind of support system failed to play the role that was intended for it and did not lead to mass acceptance of organic agriculture everywhere. Authors on the example of Denmark, Germany and Italy show the extent to which state support has influenced the expansion of areas under this system. Also, the comparison with the US agricultural policy leads to the conclusion that support policies for organic production constructed on a one-dimensional focus of payments per unit area will not lead to the expected results in terms of further progress and development of the organic sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Acta Scientiarum Polonorum. Oeconomia is the property of Wydawnictwo SGGW and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper assesses the environmental ambition of 2023-2027 Common Agricultural Policy in France. Since conditionality and agri-environment-climate measures are only marginally improved relative to the previous period, attention is focused on the new environmental instrument of the eco-scheme that in France targets the whole farm. Results suggest low environmental progress since almost all French farms would reach the standard level of the eco-scheme by one of the three access paths with unchanged farming practices, and 85% of them would reach the superior level. The percentage of farms at the superior level would be lower for farms specialized in annual crops than for cattle farms. We then show that the payment difference of €20 per hectare between the standard and superior level is probably insufficient for farms specialized in cereals, oilseeds and protein crops to offset the additional cost of the change in farm practices required to move from the standard to the superior level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With an emphasis on the real-time implementation of a practical carrier-less amplitude and phase (CAP) receiver for visible light communication (VLC), this paper proposes a full-digital architecture for the $M$ -CAP receiver with synchronisation and adaptive blind equalisation. The architecture is mainly based on the observation that a CAP signal can be demodulated using a quadrature and amplitude (QAM) receiver with an added counterclockwise rotation operation. The proposed CAP receiver employs two digital phase-locked loops (DPLL) to realise the symbol timing and carrier synchronisation, which are the most critical issues in practical systems. With the constant-modulus algorithm (CMA) offering the benefit of decoupling carrier and symbol timing synchronisation, the receiver can blindly equalise the distorted signal at the output of symbol timing synchronisation. Finally, the performance of 4/16/64-CAP receivers, which are designed using this architecture and operates at 80/160/240 Mbit/s through a low-pass light-emitting diode (LED) with a 3-dB bandwidth of 7 MHz cascaded with three measured optical wireless channels, is evaluated by Monte Carlo simulations. Results show that the receiver architecture can successfully solve the symbol timing and carrier synchronisation problems and mitigate inter-symbol interference caused by LED and/or wireless channels. The design framework for a full-digital CAP receiver has been laid out in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In our opinion, the Local Action Groups represent an important point in the development of the rural area due to the public-private partnership between various actors such as public authorities, NGOs involved in local development, farmers and entrepreneurs in the non-agricultural sector. Continuing to fund their work under the second pillar of the CAP through the NRDP 2014-2020 has contributed to maintaining and developing these partnerships due to the inclusion of cities that meet the necessary criteria. The paper presents the LEADER axis and what it entails by presenting the Action Groups at the level of Bihor County, respectively of the Bihor Gal on the Border with Hungary and its local development plan for the period 2014-2020, this being the largest LAG in County level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main aim of this article is to establish and present the relationship between the production potential of agriculture in Poland's voivodships and the utilization of funds from selected Rural Development Programs (RDP) 2014-2020. The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union has Rural Development as its “second pillar”, with the objectives of enhancing the competitiveness of agriculture and forestry; ensuring the sustainable management of natural resources and climate action; and the overall development of rural economies. The materials for this paper are based on data connected with the resources of production factors in Polish agriculture, as well as data on EU agricultural funds in Poland under RDP 2014-2020, made available by the Polish Central Statistical Office (GUS) and the Agency for Restructuring and Modernization of Agriculture (ARMA). The analysis showed that the diversification of the agricultural production potential of the different regions in Poland had an influence on the activity of farmers in applying for RDP measures. Based on the regional absorption of funds, there should be a wider range of conditions required to access selected EU programs in order to strengthen farms in areas with lower production potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mexico is a country prone to catastrophic events of seismic, vulcanological, or meteorological origin, among others. For this reason, many organizations monitor in Mexico different areas to prevent catastrophes. The Emergency Alert Systems (EAS) advise about the advent of a possible catastrophic event to the population in general. This paper explores the EAS in Mexico in order to propose improvements. First, the characteristics of the existing Emergency Alert Systems in México are evaluated. As the broadcasting have traditionally been the main alert media for the population, the coverage of radio and television is studied in order to know whether it is enough to cover all the country. Finally, a new integral Emergency Alert System covering all the country is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Current trends such as mass individualization, matrix production, cloud manufacturing and production as a service can be addressed by implementing adaptive manufacturing process chains. Adaptive manufacturing process chains contain alternative manufacturing options at several levels (e.g. feature-based geometry sequence, manufacturing methods, production machines, clamping systems, fixture positions, tools or processing strategies) to be able to continuously adapt to the real time conditions of a manufacturing environment in the best possible way under given target variables. Currently, the design of process chains is often manual and based on implicit empirical knowledge, which on the one-side leads to non-optimal process chains and on the other side does not include alternative manufacturing possibilities. The required effort for implementing adaptive process chains is thus opposed to high costs and complexity in work planning. In this paper, a literature review is conducted to identify and evaluate approaches in the scientific literature for the generation of work plans of adaptive process chains in one-off manufacturing. The literature review is divided into three phases and is broken down into six steps. The preparation phase defines the scope of the research. In the implementation phase, approaches are first identified utilizing a keyword analysis based on the theoretical and practical principles of work planning and selected in a 2-step selection process. The evaluation of the relevant approaches by using defined evaluation criteria enables the identification of research deficits for the derivation of further research questions. The literature review in this paper concludes that no approach addresses all the different aspects of work planning comprehensively. In particular, the interactions of individual decisions between the planning dimensions are insufficiently considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Progress in Earthquake Sciences is the property of China Earthquake Administration, Institute of Geophysics and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

New social demands, opportunities in the green economy, opportunities opened up by digital technology, and the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and the spread of remote work have again drawn attention to rural areas. In 2020, the European Commission conducted a public consultation on the long-term vision for rural areas. Support for rural areas is already provided under several EU policies, which contributes to their balanced, fair, green and innovative development. To support the implementation of the action plan, the common agricultural policy (CAP) and the cohesion policy will be of particular importance, which will be accompanied by a whole range of policies from other areas.The aim of this paper is an analysis of the EU legal framework of rural development policy, together with an analysis of the further development of the LEADER approach. Finally, a special focus is placed on the analysis of documents (long-term vision for the EU's rural areas) that deal with the future of rural development in the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2023-2027 CAP reform strongly emphasises Specific Objective 1, targeted to support viable farm income and resilience of the agricultural sector. The new CAP aims to achieve a fairer distribution of income support, in particular for small and medium-sized farms. This does not affect all Member States in the same way, depending on the choices made in previous programming periods. Italy has maintained the allocation of income support based on payment entitlements. Despite the internal convergence process that started in 2015, there are still important differences among farms in the level of unit support. This paper aims to analyse the effects of internal convergence of the Basic income support for sustainability (BISS), according to the Italian decisions established in the CAP Strategic Plan 2023-2027. It exploits administrative micro-data containing the value of each of the 10.5 million payment entitlements stored in Italy in the Entitlement Register of the Integrated Administrative and Control System (IACS). The analyses are based on the development of an original simulation tool replicating the actual implementation methods adopted by Italy for the 2023-2027 period. The results highlight that the internal convergence determines a significant modification to the financial allocation at both farm and territorial levels. Indeed, the internal convergence transfers support from very small and large farms towards small- and medium-sized ones. At the territorial level, the areas with a specialized agricultural sector experience a reduction of support to the benefit of more marginal and rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental policy integration (EPI), that is, the incorporation of environmental concerns in non‐environmental policy areas, has been widely adopted in public policies. However, EPI research has found much discrepancy between environmental objectives and actual implementation. This paper argues that analyzing EPI in the context of policy mixes with multiple objectives, multiple instruments and their calibrations helps to better understand unavoidable tensions and limitations. We develop a framework to assess EPI at these three levels of policy output, synthesizing the EPI and policy mix literatures. We further distinguish four analytical dimensions to assess calibrations: stringency, specificity, flexibility, and temporality. A case study of the national implementation of the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in Germany 2014–2022 is used to elaborate the conceptual argument. The CAP has saliently incorporated environmental objectives, while implementation, including the calibrations of most instruments within predetermined corridors, is left to member states. A systematic meta‐review of 142 texts evaluating policy instruments and calibrations in the CAP 2014–2022, focusing on Germany, found that several CAP instruments link most farm income support to pro‐environmental behavior. These instruments could potentially have high environmental effectiveness and efficiency. But actual policy calibrations delivered weak EPI due to low stringency and specificity, while high flexibility and temporal accommodation of farmers' needs might support EPI by increasing acceptance. Weak EPI resulted from instrument calibrations in the face of unavoidable trade‐offs between competing objectives. Our results demonstrate that calibrations can significantly affect the strength of EPI adoption, and the priorities within policy mixes more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digitalization makes its way into the agri-food sector; thus, new technologies provide conditions for sustainable agricultural production, contributing to "greening" of the agricultural sector. In this paper, we highlight EU as an actor that is able to form networks enhancing cooperation between the main economic and productive actors that seem to be critical for agricultural transition to digitalization. On the other hand, this proves to be a particular tool to achieve the goal of "greening" of the agri-food chain. Emphasis is laid on the extent to which this process is integrated in the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). For the purposes of the article we rely on relational and network-based approaches, providing a holistic framework on the role the EU plays to conceptualize change for sustainable agriculture and agri-food industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of King Abdulaziz University: Engineering Sciences is the property of King Abdulaziz University, Scientific Publishing Centre and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The European Union's Farm-to-Fork strategy, aiming at increasing the environmental sustainability of farming, is oriented to limit farm inputs that could harm the environment. This restrictive policy affects farmers' productive choices and economic well-being. However, limited attention has been paid to how this could affect the economic risk farmers face. To do so, we examine how risk is affected by fertilisers, crop protection, irrigation water, and labour choices. This study relied on Antle's method of moments applied to the irrigated field crop farms of the Italian Farm Accountancy Data Network from 2008 to 2019. This paper fills the literature gap jointly using three aspects usually adopted separately. First, consider the three moments and the semi-variance to investigate the risks of farmers' strategies. Second, it accounts also for government payments to consider the relationship between these and risk. Finally, it adopts an estimation strategy that relies on the Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) for the first step and the Fixed Effects-Generalized Least Squared (FE-GLS) estimator for the second, considering time and individual fixed effects and considering interaction terms effects. According to our research, constraining fertilisers, crop protection, and irrigation water increases income variability, causing farming to be potentially riskier. However, restricting fertilisers and crop protection use decreases the downside risk. These results indicate that policy measures constraining input use, such as those foreseen in the EU, strongly influence the extent and type of risks farmers face. Therefore, policymakers should consider this evidence when designing environmental policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we investigate the "Young Farmer Problem" in Europe with a specific focus on how it applies in England. The paper is intended as a discussion paper and represents a forerunner to a more comprehensive study of the raw Farm Business Survey data conducted through a Phd. Recent reforms of the European Union's (EU) Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) have specifically targeted young farmers for increased support; with young farmers being seen as more innovative, entrepreneurial and amenable to change. Furthermore, the EU has stated that the "generational renewal" of agriculture is critical for the long term viability of the sector. This paper investigates the business performance and entrepreneurial behaviour of younger farmers in England through empirical analysis of Farm Business Survey (FBS) data, and finds some evidence to support the notion of higher levels of performance among younger farmers. Farmers in the 35 - <45 years age group showed consistently higher levels of overall productivity, profitability and investment. Additionally, the results show that younger farmers demonstrate consistently higher levels of engagement with agri-environment schemes. This study concurs with the findings of Zagata and Sutherland (2015) in the need to improve targeting on the basis of age specifically in order to isolate the under 40 age group which is the focus of European policy and in the need to separate new entrants from inheritors in the assessment of young farmers; an objective which necessitates the analysis of raw data and the conduction of original research within the topic area. This paper and, importantly, the original research which will be conducted through the accompanying Phd will address the fifth research objective of the Research platform proposed by Zagata and Sutherland (2015) to test the characterisation of young people and new entrants tofarming, as entrepreneurial innovators sympathetic to and amenable with the goals of the CAP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural sector contributes to water, soil and air degradation, as well as biodiversity loss. Agri-environmental measures are a predominantly voluntary policy instrument that seeks to encourage farmers to implement environmentally friendly practices on their farms. This paper aims at providing an overview of policy drivers, goals and effects discussed in literature, as well as factors affecting farmers’ decision to participate in AEM. Most studies geographically belong to Western Europe (United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, Belgium, Denmark) and there is a disproportionately smaller amount of similar analyzes for Central and Eastern Europe. Connecting AEM’s policy impact to understanding farmers’ participation motives contributes to comprehending just how complex the concept of policy implementation is now and will be in the future. The effects of AEM mostly depend on the specific measure implemented, phenomenon investigated, and region observed. Farmer’s interest to get involved in AEM depends on the potential economic benefit, socio-demographic factors, social connections, personal beliefs and trust in public institutions. Therefore, the policy should adapt to stakeholders’ heterogeneity and send straightforward messages to farmers showing clear interrelation between the policy, farmers’ uptake and the desired environmental outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to analyse cross-compliance as a component of the CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) which conditions the provision of financial support from European and national funds to farmers, so that they comply with basic rules related to the environment, climate change, good agricultural conditions, public health, animal and plant health, animal welfare. The paper also examines the rules of cross-compliance as well as the application of administrative sanctions to reduce payments or exclusion from payment, for one or more years, in case of noncompliance with the rules of cross-compliance. Cross-compliance rules aimed at cultivating the farmer and the land he manages and applies to the entire agricultural area of the farm, including land ineligible for payment or not used for production purposes. An analysis of the evolution of the common agricultural policy (CAP) highlights the continuity and evolving nature of the European agricultural and rural development policy based on specific objectives, implementation mechanisms and defined financial instruments. Any farmer applying direct payments on agricultural land, agrienvironment payments, LFA support payments for the first afforestation of agricultural areas, wine support and other schemes and support measures from EU funds and the national budget must comply with cross-compliance rules. Failure results in the exclusion of payment or payments in relation to the extent, severity, persistence, repetition and deliberate nature of the failure. Moreover, the allocation of all payments in the European financial package for direct payments to farmers in 2014-2020 will continue to be linked to compliance with cross-compliance rules in accordance with regulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: As the formal process of Brexit has already started, there is much uncertainty about Brexit's impacts on Britain's social, political and economic future. This paper examines the economic impact. After briefly discussing some significant EU treaties that serve as the background materials, it presents the key arguments advocated by the leave and remain camps. The economic impact depends critically on the negotiation outcomes. Aside from the debate on the divorce costs, there are numerous issues that must be negotiated, such as immigration, trade in goods, services, agriculture, fisheries and financial regulations. We discuss various scenarios of possible new trade regimes, resulting in different impacts on the UK economy. With each side having its bargaining chips to play, the trade‐offs between “give and take” in the negotiation game are analysed. Considering various strategic options, this paper urges rationality and cooperation, especially weighing both sides’ entwined economic interests, in addition to their mutual security, defence, environmental and world concerns. The potential gains and losses in the event where the UK contemplates new trade arrangements with the non‐EU countries are analysed in the Appendix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the paper, the price volatility was examined. The authors used 650 weekly observations from 2003 to 2015. Such a long period of analysis helped to reveal periods with high volatility. The objective of the paper was to recognize price volatility of agricultural commodities in Poland. The authors chose beef, pork and wheat markets to show the differentiation of price volatility. It revealed periods of large and small volatility. The global market situation impacted Polish agricultural markets with the opening markets and a greater access to the new markets. The periods having the strongest impact on Polish agricultural markets were the integration with the EU, the global crisis in 2008, and problems in the EU zone. The prices of analysed agricultural commodities differed in various EU countries. The prices of wheat increased most in France, Hungary and Lithuania. The prices of store cattle increased most in the years 2004-2015 in Estonia, Sweden and Luxemburg. The prices of pigs increased most in Malta, Sweden and Cyprus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the objectives of a second pillar of the European Union Common Agricultural Policy is to increase the competitiveness of agricultural sector. This task is primarily implemented by instruments such as investment subsidies for agricultural holdings and projects aimed at generation changes among people working in agriculture and increasing their knowledge and skills. In the Polish RDP 2007-2013, the objective of improving competitiveness was a priority. The aim of the paper was to assess the influence of an axis I of RDP 2007-2013 instruments on strengthening or hindering development processes in Polish agriculture, with a special reference to a regional aspect. The conducted research showed that the relationship of the Program's initiatives aimed at improving the competitiveness of agriculture with economic progress had a diverse character. Strengthening development processes in Polish agriculture should be linked with the Program's initiatives supporting a modernization of farms. The paper was based on public statistics data and results of evaluation and scientific research concerning this Program. The work uses the methods of comparative and statistical analysis as well as literature review. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union remains at the top tier of the union's legacies with the aim of bequeathing a sustainable future for all. Series of actions geared towards reforming the environmental and climate goals of the CAP are constantly being taken. The objective of this paper is to verify if the environmental and climatic CAP measures proposed in Poland's Strategic Development Plan for Agriculture, for the years 2023–2027, reflect farmers' preferences regarding the structure of the CAP support. To achieve this goal, we model a hypothetical strategic game involving farmers from different regions. The outcomes of the game were derived from the ex-post analysis of EU funds, in the application for environmental and climatic CAP measures, in addition to the results of simulations of the partial equilibrium model for the agricultural sector (CAPRI). It was found out that farmers from regions with disadvantaged agrarian structures would find it more difficult to cope with new eco-schemes due to the fact that good agricultural practices are rather low in such regions. For the long-term development of Polish agriculture, the agrarian structures need to be improved, as this affects the emission of greenhouse gases. The varying preferences of farmers from different Polish regions in implementing eco-schemes can be balanced by increasing redistributive payments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the first time, this paper investigates the influence of ordoliberalism (OL) at both the ideational and regulative levels of European integration processes regarding agricultural policy (i.e. CAP), competition policy, and economic and monetary policy (i.e. EMU) in comparison. The analytical key is an operationalisation of OL into five elements. The paper generally confirms the hypotheses proposed that OL was and remains an ideational influence of some importance, without exaggerating this influence, for European integration processes, both at the constitutive level as well as – but less so – at the practical level. However, there are differences in the degree of influence across the various policy areas. The influence is weakest in CAP and strongest in competition policy, but only since the Internal Market was proposed in the mid-1980s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The integration process of candidate and potential candidate countries for the EU causes confusion and scepticism among different stakeholders, which often leads to missing out on accession opportunities. Although NMS are able to achieve economic growth by joining the EU, membership success also depends on the initial agricultural structure, local and national policy, pre-accession and post-accession measures, education, vocational training, development of the non-farm rural economy and institutional environment. Croatia, as the newest EU member state, has been experiencing certain issues in the implementation of CAP measures. Using thematic references dealing with the issues of the CAP and harmonization of NMS and conducting interviews among stakeholders in Croatia through focus groups during the pre-accession and membership period, the goals of this paper were to determine: (1) the understanding of the CAP principles and adjustments of national agricultural policies (2) the effects of policy results on national agriculture and further expectations (3) the state of policy learning and dialogue. These results could serve agricultural policy scholars as contribution to the analysis of integration policies and decision makers to avoid misunderstandings when implementing new agricultural policy measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Butter and skimmed milk powder (SMP) are considered to be primary dairy commodities as they enable storage of fat and protein. The spread between butter and SMP prices in the European Union (EU) has been stable for many years. However, in 2016, butter prices suddenly increased to reach extremely high levels while SMP prices remained low. As a consequence, the price spread between milk fat and protein has surged, leading to severe imbalance in the EU dairy market. Some professionals argue that the main reason for this occurrence are large intervention stocks of SMP accumulated by the European Commission (EC) which weigh on prices. Nevertheless, no one has yet proved the existence of a causal relationship between the intervention stocks accumulated by the EC and the butter/SMP price spread. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to test that hypothesis. The causality between the EC intervention stocks and the butter/SMP price spread was tested using the Granger causality approach. The results show that the difference between butter and SMP intervention stocks accumulated by the EC Granger-causes the butter/SMP price spread while there is no causality in the opposite direction, which supports the hypothesis tested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Rural Economics / Nōgyō Keizai Kenkyū is the property of Agricultural Economics Society of Japan and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper analyses the regional impacts of direct payments on the labour and land productivity of European farms. The basic assumption of the research is that direct CAP subsidies have a positive effect on productivity and efficiency. This was tested by quantitative regression-analysis models, which were based on NUTS2- level regional data from 2008-2018. The results show that direct subsidies have a negative effect on labour and productivity in agriculture, a finding that can be attributed to a number of underlying factors. The direction and magnitude of these productivity effects differ markedly between old and new Member States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel wafer-level packaging method for shunt, capacitive RF MEMS switches using BCB as the adhesive interlayer. Fabrication and electrical characteristics of the proposed package were initially evaluated for 50 $\Omega $ CPW lines. Microwave measurements of these packaged test structures were fitted to a circuit model, which was later employed to optimize the package for RF MEMS switches. The proposed packaging method was next successfully integrated with an in-house RF MEMS fabrication process. Mechanical and microwave characteristics of these switches were investigated prior to and following the packaging process. Measured shear strength for five packaged switches averages to 18.3 MPa. MEMS bridges deflect by 71 nm on the average due to the packaging step. C-V measurements show 4.2 V average increase in pull-in voltages. Millimeter-wave measurements confirm the negligible effect of package on switch performance. Measured upstate return and insertion losses at 35 GHz read 28 and 0.4 dB, respectively. The downstate isolation attains 35 dB at 35 GHz for most of the packaged switches. Lifetime measurements of a packaged switch demonstrate 10.2 billion cycles without failure. [2018-0268] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of circular economy has been gaining in popularity and interest among both scholars and policymakers. It is an alternative to today's linear system and it focuses on reducing waste and minimizing the use of resources. The purpose of this paper is to present the challenges related to agricultural transformation towards circular economy, and to analyze the scope and nature of solutions that could be used under the CAP to support the integration of EU agriculture into the circular economy system. The study is based on a review of papers on circular economy (CE). The review enabled identifying the particularities of CE which showed the potential role for the CAP in implementing CE in agriculture. The conclusions from the research indicate that CAP instruments currently in place have a limited potential to support the adaptation of agriculture to the circular economy. However, it is possible to modify the support criteria so that they stimulate the integration of the EU agricultural sector into the economy model implemented in the EU. However, to accelerate this process, it is necessary to introduce more effective instruments in providing ecosystem services and mechanisms of cooperation with the industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the effects of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) payments on the indirectly generated non-farm jobs in small and medium-sized enterprises, which are central to job creation. It examines whether there are differences in the effect according to business location – rural or urban, the agricultural supply chain and according to CAP Pillars. A microeconomic approach is employed, based on firm data from FAME dataset combined with detailed subsidies information from Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. The generalised method of moments (system GMM) is used to estimate the effect of CAP payments in both static and dynamic models of employment. The results suggest positive net spillovers of CAP payments to non-farm employment. Although the magnitude of the effect is small, it is economically significant. In general, Pillar 1 has a stronger positive employment effect relative to Pillar 2. However, Pillar 2 payments have a stronger positive effect per Euro spent in rural areas and within agricultural supply chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the current global context, agriculture should develop both interdisciplinary and intradisciplinary. Digitalization and innovation represent the key drivers of evolution. Agriculture must become more flexible and adaptable to the current challenges, integrating eco-friendly solutions that can maintain production at optimal capacity for a longer period. This paper aims to review the Romanian agricultural policies from the 19th century to the present, bringing perspective on the international practices and focusing on the technological innovations that occurred in the past years. The research follows the evolution of agriculture on the European agenda. There are now new challenges imposed by the need for modernization and reconfiguration of farming into an integrated system with performance parameters and development routes. Romania has followed the trends and implemented several policies which aim to help farmers integrate the new technologies into their day-to-day work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]