Valuing the Option to Switch to Organic Farming: An Application to U.S. Corn and Soybeans

Based on option value theory, we develop a theoretical model to assess the dollar compensation required for the conversion to organic farming. Our empirical model is a switching regression model with two regimes and we use county level data on organic and conventional corn and soybean production in the U.S. for the application. Assuming an interest rate of 10 percent, a conventional corn-soybean grower would need to receive a one-time payment of $315 per acre to compensate for the conversion cost and an additional$1,088 per acre to cover the long run higher production and market risks. The sum of these two values equals an annual payment of $228 per acre for a 10 year contact. The results are discussed in the context of the recently introduced Conservation Security Program, which will make direct payments to US farmers for organic practices.option theory, organic farming, direct payments, switching regression, Conservation Security Program, Crop Production/Industries, D81, Q18,

Sustainability of Organic, Integrated and Conventional Farming Systems in Tuscany

Agricultural researchers widely recognise the importance of sustainable agricultural production systems and the need to develop appropriate methods to measure sustainability. The principal purpose of this paper is to evaluate the financial and environmental aspects of sustainability of Organic, Integrated and Conventional Farming Systems (OFS, IFS, and CFS, respectively) at farm and more detailed spatial scales. This is achieved applying an integrated economic-environmental accounting framework to three case study farms in Tuscany including different farming systems and different spatial scales. The environmental performances of the FS were measured through the application of an Environmental Accounting Information Systems (EAIS) at field, site and farm level. The EAIS indicators were then integrated with (1) a set of financial indicators to evaluate the economic and environmental trade-offs between different FS and (2) with information on the regional and site-specific soil and climate conditions to study the impact of different pedo-climates on the environmental performances of the FS. The gross margins of steady-state OFS were found to be higher than the corresponding CFS gross margins. OFS perform better than I/CFS with respect to nitrogen losses, pesticide impact, herbaceous plant biodiversity and most of the other environmental indicators. However, on hilly soils, erosion revealed to be higher in OFS than in CFS. The pesticide and the nitrogen indicators showed, for this example, that the environmental impact due to integrated and conventional farming practices is similar. Regional pedoclimatic factors resulted to have a considerable impact on nutrient losses, soil erosion, pesticide impact and herbaceous plant biodiversity, site-specific factors on nutrient losses and soil erosion. Conclusions are drawn on the possible practical applications of the method for environmental measures in the agricultural sector.sustainable farming systems, organic agriculture, environmental accounting, indicators, Farm Management, Land Economics/Use,

Planning a Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Obesity Intervention for Hispanic/Latino Children Living in Rural Nebraska

Childhood obesity is a public health concern in the U.S; however, for the Hispanic/Latino community these concerns have grown to epic proportions. In Nebraska, the rate of childhood obesity is 25.1%; among Hispanic / Latinos students, the obesity rate is 30.9%. Unfortunately, specific Nebraska obesity rates by race and ethnicity are limited among rural communities, and programs that can effectively address this problem in the Hispanic / Latino community are limited or non-existent. Consequently, disparities between urban and rural communities exist. The purpose of this capstone project is to design a culturally and linguistically oriented intervention to address childhood obesity among the Hispanic/Latino community in a rural population. We used secondary data gathered from the literature on evidence-based childhood obesity programs for this population and from focus groups conducted among a Hispanic/Latino community during an APEx Learning project in Colfax County, Nebraska. This capstone project will also provide a full description of the program, logic model, implementation plan, evaluation plan, expected outcomes, strengths and limitations, sustainability, and budget. Finally, this intervention plan hopes to influence community leaders to adopt this project and for it to be implemented by the East Central District Health Department to reduce childhood obesity among the Hispanic/Latino community in Colfax County, Nebraska

ASSESSMENT OF MOUSE EMBRYO VIABILITY BY ESTERASIC ACTIVITY DETECTION

In order to evaluate the esterasic activity within the viable embryos we used the Fluorescein diacetate(FDA) staining test. For staining was used a 0.5 mg/ml FDA stock solution. The embryos were recoveredat 48 hours post coitus from superovulated Swiss mouse females. Before staining the embryos weremicroscopically evaluated by morphological criteria and classified in 4 quality codes. The two methodsused for quality and viability assessment were correlated applying Pearson coefficient. The calculatedvalue of the Pearson coefficient (r=1) showed a strong correlation between the two methods used andindicate FDA staining test and esterasic activity as a fast, easy and reliable method for embryo viabilityassessment

EXPERIMENTAL TRIES TO ESTABLISH THE PREIMPLANTATIONAL MAMMALIAN EMBRYOS VIABILITY THROUGHOUT STAINING

Presently there are more methods to assess embryo quality but, still the wieldy usedremains the morphological criteria method. In this experiment were tested twostaining methods for embryos and oocytes. The embryos were recovered from mousefemale at 72 hours after mating. The recovered embryos were first evaluated aftermorphological criteria and than by Trypan blue exclusion and Neutral red staining.Using Trypan blue exclusion were evaluated 30 embryos from which 19 (63.3) wereclassified as viable and 11 (36.7) were classified as nonviable. By Neutral redstaining were evaluated 37 embryos from which 24 (64.8) were considered viableand 13 (35.2) were considered nonviable. The oocytes recovered were alsoevaluated using the two methods: using Trypan blue exclusion were stained 10oocytes from which 9 remained uncolored and were considered viable and 1 wasstained in blue and was considered nonviable and using Neutral red 13 oocytes werestained from which 9 were evaluated as viable and 4 as nonviable

A new Comptonization model for low-magnetized accreting neutron stars in low mass X-ray binaries

We developed a new model for the X-ray spectral fitting \xspec package which takes into account the effects of both thermal and dynamical (i.e. bulk) Comptonization. The model consists of two components: one is the direct blackbody-like emission due to seed photons which are not subjected to effective Compton scattering, while the other one is a convolution of the Green's function of the energy operator with a blackbody-like seed photon spectrum. When combined thermal and bulk effects are considered, the analytic form of the Green's function may be obtained as a solution of the diffusion Comptonization equation. Using data from the BeppoSAX, INTEGRAL and RXTE satellites, we test our model on the spectra of a sample of six persistently low magnetic field bright neutron star Low Mass X-ray Binaries, covering three different spectral states. Particular attention is given to the transient powerlaw-like hard X-ray (> 30 keV) tails that we interpret in the framework of the bulk motion Comptonization process. We show that the values of the best-fit delta-parameter, which represents the importance of bulk with respect to thermal Comptonization, can be physically meaningful and can at least qualitatively describe the physical conditions of the environment in the innermost part of the system. Moreover, we show that in fitting the thermal Comptonization spectra to the X-ray spectra of these systems, the best-fit parameters of our model are in excellent agreement with those of COMPTT, a broadly used and well established XSPEC model.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

M2 muscarinic receptor activation inhibits cell proliferation and migration of rat adipose-mesenchymal stem cells

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), also known as stromal mesenchymal stem cells, are multipotent cells, which can be found in many tissues and organs as bone marrow, adipose tissue and other tissues. In particular MSCs derived from Adipose tissue (ADSCs) are the most frequently used in regenerative medicine because they are easy to source, rapidly expandable in culture and excellent differentiation potential into adipocytes, chondrocytes and other cell types. Acetylcholine (ACh), is one of the most important neurotransmitter in central (CNS) and peripheral nervous system (PNS), playing important roles also in non-neural tissue, but its functions in MSCs are still not investigated. Although MSCs express muscarinic receptor subtypes, their role is completely unknown. In present work muscarinic cholinergic effects were characterized in rat ADSCs. Analysis by RT-PCR demonstrates that ADSCs express M1-M4 muscarinic receptor subtypes, whereas M2 is one of the most expressed subtype. For this reason, our attention was focused on M2 subtype. By using the selective M2 agonist Arecaidine Propargyl Ester (APE) we performed cell proliferation and migration assays demonstrating that APE causes cell growth and migration inhibition without affecting cell survival. Our results indicate that ACh via M2 receptors, may contribute to the maintaining of the ADSCs quiescent status. These data are the first evidence that ACh via muscarinic receptors might contribute to control ADSCs physiology

Requerimiento del personal de enfermería según las necesidades del niño recién nacidos en estado crítico : unidad de cuidados intensivos, sala de neonatología, Complejo Hospitalario Metropolitano Dr. Arnulfo Arias Madrid. 1995-1996.

Se realizó un estudio analítico prospectivo, longitudinal con diseño observacional de tipo cuantitativo de tiempo y movimiento con el propósito de determinar el tiempo promedio de atención de enfermera-paciente para la asignación de recursos humanos necesarios en la satisfacción de las necesidades del recién nacido críticamente enfermo de la sala de neonatología del Complejo Hospitalario Metropolitano Dr. Arnulfo Arias Madrid. El mismo se hizo en un corte de tiempo de octubre 1995 a marzo 1996. La población estuvo conformada por 15 enfermeras con edad promedio de 36 años y un tiempo promedio de 12 años de servicio; éstas enfermeras fueron clasificadas según su categoría en: generalista y especialista y según el turno en el cual fue medido el tiempo que tomó en realizar cada una de las actividades. La variable tiempo en una cierta actividad fue tomada en minutos. Para la recolección de los datos se elaboraron dos instrumentos que permitieron tomar la información; el primero para determinar el tiempo de atención de cada una de las actividades según las necesidades y el segundo para clasificación del recién nacido grave y situarlo en una categoría (ver Anexos 6 y 7). En el análisis de esta información se utilizaron las pruebas de t-Student para dos muestras independientes y la prueba F-Fisher para más de dos muestras. Los resultados señalaron que el tiempo promedio total de la enfermera en realizar todas las actividades fue de 728.4 minutos, es decir, 12 horas con 14 minutos, indicando esta cifra la correlación existente entre el Indice de atención de los pacientes en cuidados intensivos y la atención que se le ofrece al recién nacido. Los productos de la investigación apuntan hacia la necesidad de dotar más recursos de enfermeras para esta área crítica en bienestar de los recién nacidos enfermos

Pelatihan Manajemen Usaha Kelompok Pengrajin Tenun Ikat Khas NTT

Abstract - This community partnership program aims to empower groups of weaving craftsmen in Sabu Tenun Village so that they can develop their business. The development carried out is from the aspects of business management and marketing. Partners in this Community Partnership program are the Kampung Sabu Weaving Group. The implementation team provides training to partners on business management and online product marketing. It is hoped that through this activity partners can have an entrepreneurial spirit and can carry out the marketing process online. This is so that the woven products produced can have a wider market, not only on display in galleries. The targeted output is that partners know better-organized marketing and management processes so that productivity increases.   Abstrak – Program kemitraan masyarakat ini bertujuan melakukan pemberdayaan kepada kelompok pengrajin tenun di Kampung Tenun Sabu agar dapat mengembangkan usahanya. Pengembangan yang dilakukan adalah dari aspek manajemen usaha dan pemasaran. Mitra dalam program Kemitraan Masyarakat ini adalah Kelompok Tenun Kampung Sabu. Tim Pelaksana memberikan pelatihan kepada mitra tentang manajemen usaha dan pemasaran produk secara online. Diharapkan lewat kegiatan ini mitradapat memiliki jiwa kewirausahaan dan dapat melakukan proses pemasaran secara onlne. Hal ini bertujuan agar produk tenunan yang dihasilkan dapat memliki pasar yang lebih luas, tidak hanya dipajang di galeri. Luaran yang ditargetkan adalah mitra memiliki pengetahuan tentang proses manajemen serta pemasaran yang lebih terorganisir sehinggga terjadi peningkatan produktivita