Applications Of Dynamic Programming To Agricultural Decision Problems

A collection of articles which provide examples that demonstrate the application of dynamic programming to a wide variety of decision problems in agriculture.

Humans interact with and are part of the mysterious processes of nature. Inevitably they have to discover how to manage the environment for their long-term survival and benefit. To do this successfully means learning something about the dynamics of natural processes, and then using the knowledge to work with the forces of nature for some desired outcome. These are intriguing and challenging tasks. This book describes a technique which has much to offer in attempting to achieve the latter task. A knowledge of dynamic programming is useful for anyone interested in the optimal management of agricultural and natural resources for two reasons. First, resource management problems are often problems of dynamic optimization. The dynamic programming approach offers insights into the economics of dynamic optimization which can be explained much more simply than can other approaches. Conditions for the optimal management of a resource can be derived using the logic of dynamic programming, taking as a starting point the usual economic definition of the value of a resource which is optimally managed through time. This is set out in Chapter I for a general resource problem with the minimum of mathematics. The results are related to the discrete maximum principle of control theory. In subsequent chapters dynamic programming arguments are used to derive optimality conditions for particular resources.

A collection of articles which provide examples that demonstrate the application of dynamic programming to a wide variety of decision problems in agriculture.

After all the research on agricultural risk to date, the treatment of risk in agricultural research is far from harmonious. Many competing risk models have been proposed. Some new methodologies are largely untested. Some of the leading empirical methodologies in agricultural economic research are poorly suited for problems with aggregate data where risk averse behavior is less likely to be important. This book is intended to (i) define the current state of the literature on agricultural risk research, (ii) provide a critical evaluation of economic risk research on agriculture to date and (iii) set a research agenda that will meet future needs and prospects. This type of research promises to become of increasing importance because agricultural policy in the United States and elsewhere has decidedly shifted from explicit income support objectives to risk-related motivations of helping farmers deal with risk. Beginning with the 1996 Farm Bill, the primary set of policy instruments from U.S. agriculture has shifted from target prices and set aside acreage to agricultural crop insurance. Because this book is intended to have specific implications for U.S. agricultural policy, it has a decidedly domestic scope, but clearly many of the issues have application abroad. For each of the papers and topics included in this volume, individuals have been selected to give the strongest and broadest possible treatment of each facet of the problem. The result is this comprehensive reference book on the economics of agricultural risk.

This book has the purpose of providing the "state of the arts" concerning bio-economic modelling dealing with agricultural systems. In most cases, the contributions use a methodology combining the use of biophysical and economic models, in all cases, an engineering production function approach is totally or partially applied. This practice is being developed in the last years as a response to concrete policy matters: agricultural policies are increasingly combined with environmental and natural resources policies, and this reality involves the need of an integrated assessment, that current economic models are not able to provide.

Data structures are essential principles applicable to any programming language in computer science. Data structures may be studied more easily with Python than with any other programming language because of their interpretability, interactivity, and object-oriented nature. Computers may store and process data at an extraordinary rate and with outstanding accuracy. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance that the data is efficiently stored and is able to be accessed promptly. In addition, data processing should take as little time as feasible while maintaining the highest possible level of precision. Advanced Applications of Python Data Structures and Algorithms assists in understanding and applying the fundamentals of data structures and their many implementations and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of various data structures. Covering key topics such as Python, linked lists, datatypes, and operators, this reference work is ideal for industry professionals, computer scientists, researchers, academicians, scholars, practitioners, instructors, and students.

This book revises the well-known capacity control problem in revenue management from the perspective of a risk-averse decision-maker. Modelling an expected utility maximizing decision maker, the problem is formulated as a risk-sensitive Markov decision process. Special emphasis is put on the existence of structured optimal policies. Numerical examples illustrate the results.

This book presents an authoritative collection of contributions by researchers from 16 different countries (Austria, Chile, Georgia, Germany, Mexico, Norway, P.R. of China, Poland, North Macedonia, Romania, Russia, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and United States) that report on recent developments and new directions in advanced control systems, together with new theoretical findings, industrial applications and case studies on complex engineering systems. This book is dedicated to Professor Vsevolod Mykhailovych Kuntsevich, an Academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, and President of the National Committee of the Ukrainian Association on Automatic Control, in recognition of his pioneering works, his great scientific and scholarly achievements, and his years of service to many scientific and professional communities, notably those involved in automation, cybernetics, control, management and, more specifically, the fundamentals and applications of tools and techniques for dealing with uncertain information, robustness, non-linearity, extremal systems, discrete control systems, adaptive control systems and others. Covering essential theories, methods and new challenges in control systems design, the book is not only a timely reference guide but also a source of new ideas and inspirations for graduate students and researchers alike. Its 15 chapters are grouped into four sections: (a) fundamental theoretical issues in complex engineering systems, (b) artificial intelligence and soft computing for control and decision-making systems, (c) advanced control techniques for industrial and collaborative automation, and (d) modern applications for management and information processing in complex systems. All chapters are intended to provide an easy-to-follow introduction to the topics addressed, including the most relevant references. At the same time, they reflect various aspects of the latest research work being conducted around the world and, therefore, provide information on the state of the art.