Computer and Internet Use by Great Plains Farmers

This study uses data from a 2001 survey of Great Plains farmers to explore the adoption, usage patterns, and perceived benefits of computers and the Internet. Adoption results suggest that exposure to the technology through college, outside employment, friends, and family is ultimately more influential than farmer age and farm size. Notably, about half of those who use the Internet for farm-related business report zero economic benefits from it. Whether a farmer perceives that the Internet generates economic benefits depends primarily on how long the farmer has used the Internet for farm business and for what purposes.agriculture, competitiveness, net benefits, technology adoption, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Computer and Internet Use by Great Plains Farmers

We use data from a 2001 survey of Great Plains farmers to explore the adoption, usage patterns, and perceived benefits of computers and the Internet. Our adoption results suggest that exposure to the technology through college, outside employment, friends, and family is ultimately more influential than farmer age and farm size. Notably, about half of those who use the Internet for farm-related business report zero economic benefits from it. Whether a farmer perceives that the Internet generates economic benefits depends primarily on how long the farmer has used the Internet for farm business and for what purposes.Farm Management, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

A New Campaign Strategy Informed by Pragmatism: Running on a Platform of Expanding Voting Accessibility

Voter disillusionment is commonplace in the United States, with many eligible voters either choosing not to or altogether unable to exercise their right to vote. To the former, in 2016 alone, nearly 40 percent of eligible voters did not vote. Although it is an issue that extends to the health of a democracy, voting itself is not one that is central to campaign platforms, with candidates running on more high-profile issues such as healthcare or the economy. A solution to voter disillusionment is for pragmatically minded candidates to organize their campaigns around voter expansion as a means to build winning coalitions. Once locating the rhetorical origins of efforts to disenfranchise the marginalized, we develop a pragmatic strategy for appealing to those previously disengaged constituencies by demonstrating how such a platform turned legislative agenda can improve the lives of more citizens as well as strengthen democratic values

Mahi-mahi (Coryphaena hippurus) life development: morphological, physiological, behavioral and molecular phenotypes.

BackgroundMahi-mahi (Coryphaena hippurus) is a commercially and ecologically important fish species that is widely distributed in tropical and subtropical waters. Biological attributes and reproductive capacities of mahi-mahi make it a tractable model for experimental studies. In this study, life development of cultured mahi-mahi from the zygote stage to adult has been described.ResultsA comprehensive developmental table has been created reporting development as primarily detailed observations of morphology. Additionally, physiological, behavioral, and molecular landmarks have been described to significantly contribute in the understanding of mahi life development.ConclusionRemarkably, despite the vast difference in adult size, many developmental landmarks of mahi map quite closely onto the development and growth of Zebrafish and other warm-water, active Teleost fishes

The p38α mitogen-activated protein kinase as a central nervous system drug discovery target

Protein kinases are critical modulators of a variety of cellular signal transduction pathways, and abnormal phosphorylation events can be a cause or contributor to disease progression in a variety of disorders. This has led to the emergence of protein kinases as an important new class of drug targets for small molecule therapeutics. A serine/threonine protein kinase, p38α mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), is an established therapeutic target for peripheral inflammatory disorders because of its critical role in regulation of proinflammatory cytokine production. There is increasing evidence that p38α MAPK is also an important regulator of proinflammatory cytokine levels in the central nervous system, raising the possibility that the kinase may be a drug discovery target for central nervous system disorders where cytokine overproduction contributes to disease progression. Development of bioavailable, central nervous system-penetrant p38α MAPK inhibitors provides the required foundation for drug discovery campaigns targeting p38α MAPK in neurodegenerative disorders

LINER/H II "Transition" Nuclei and the Nature of NGC 4569

Motivated by the discovery of young, massive stars in the nuclei of some LINER/H II ``transition'' nuclei such as NGC 4569, we have computed photoionization models to determine whether some of these objects may be powered solely by young star clusters rather than by accretion-powered active nuclei. The models were calculated with the photoionization code CLOUDY, using evolving starburst continua generated by the the STARBURST99 code of Leitherer et al. (1999). We find that the models are able to reproduce the emission-line spectra of transition nuclei, but only for instantaneous bursts of solar or higher metallicity, and only for ages of ~3-5 Myr, the period when the extreme-ultraviolet continuum is dominated by emission from Wolf-Rayet stars. For clusters younger than 3 Myr or older than 6 Myr, and for models with a constant star-formation rate, the softer ionizing continuum results in an emission spectrum more typical of H II regions. This model predicts that Wolf-Rayet emission features should appear in the spectra of transition nuclei. While such features have not generally been detected to date, they could be revealed in observations having higher spatial resolution. Demographic arguments suggest that this starburst model may not apply to the majority of transition nuclei, particularly those in early-type host galaxies, but it could account for some members of the transition class in hosts of type Sa and later. The starburst models during the Wolf-Rayet-dominated phase can also reproduce the narrow-line spectra of some LINERs, but only under conditions of above-solar metallicity and only if high-density gas is present (n_e >~ 10^5 cm^{-3}). This scenario could be applicable to some ``Type 2'' LINERs which do not show any clear signs of nonstellar activity.Comment: To appear in PASP. 22 pages, includes 9 figures, uses AASTeX v5.