LONG-TERM HEDGING ANALYSIS FOR SOYBEANS, 1973-95

The study analyzed a two-year hedge for soybeans in three states trying to capture high prices. The differences in prices received over a 23 year period were not significant when compared to annual hedges or cash sales.Demand and Price Analysis, Marketing,

U.S. --MEXICO FOOD SYSTEMS AND THE TOMATO TRADE DISPUTE

Mexican produce exports into the U.S. increased considerably during the latter months of 1995 and the first nine months of 1996. Because of these increased imports, Florida tomato growers requested the executive branch of the U.S. government and Congress to put into effect seven trade protection measures to reduce or stop fresh tomato imports from Mexico. This study was carried out to determine if the United State Department of Commerce (USDOC) and the United States International Trade Commission (USITC) found valid and reliable indications that the tomato industry in the U.S. was materially injured by imports from Mexico.International Relations/Trade,

Focusing on surgical and laser advances in glaucoma management

Introduction: Lowering the IOP remains the mainstay treatment to stop the progression of glaucoma. Different modalities can be used to achieve this including IOP lowering medications, laser, and surgeries. Nowadays, minimally invasive glaucoma surgeries and newer lasers are becoming more popular due to their safety profile, and their efficacy, allowing the patients to be less dependent on life long medications and substituting more invasive procedures as trabeculectomy, and shunt operations. / Areas covered: This review will go through how lasers and surgery are used to lower the IOP, and the newest techniques, and modalities used to achieve this. / Expert opinion: the authors of this review believe that in five years’ time lasers and minimally invasive glaucoma procedures will replace eye drops and surgeries like trabeculectomy and shunt procedures

Población y turismo rural en territorios de baja densidad demográfica en España

Se reflexiona en esta aportación sobre los espacios rurales en regresión poblacional y las posibilidades que ofrecen las actividades económicas vinculadas con el turismo rural y de interior para truncar o minimizar la crisis demográfica que sufren. Preferentemente se abordan su reciente evolución de la población y las causas y evolución del turismo rural. Pero de forma transversal se hacen también reflexiones sobre las políticas públicas de desarrollo local y los problemas de organización territorial de los ámbitos locales. El ámbito de estudio es genérico para España. El uso de una base de datos de escala municipal permite una buena radiografía del actual estado de la población y del poblamiento tanto para municipios rurales como urbanos. Para ello se han tomado datos del Instituto Nacional de Estadística y posteriormente se han georreferenciado con el apoyo de un SIG dando como resultado una ilustrativa cartografía que nos permite extraer algunas conclusiones

ARTISTIC: A randomised trial of human papillomavirus (HPV) testing in primary cervical screening

The official published version of the article can be found at the link below.Objectives: Primary cervical screening uses cytology to detect cancer precursor lesions [cervical intraepithelial neoplasia stage 3 or beyond (CIN3+)]. Human papillomavirus (HPV) testing could add sensitivity as an adjunct to cytology or as a first test, reserving cytology for HPV-positive women. This study addresses the questions: Does the combination of cytology and HPV testing achieve a reduction in incident CIN3+?; Is HPV testing cost-effective in primary cervical screening?; Is its use associated with adverse psychosocial or psychosexual effects?; and How would it perform as an initial screening test followed by cytology for HPV positivity? Design: ARTISTIC was a randomised trial of cervical cytology versus cervical cytology plus HPV testing, evaluated over two screening rounds, 3 years apart. Round 1 would detect prevalent disease and round 2 a combination of incident and undetected disease from round 1. Setting: Women undergoing routine cervical screening in the NHS programme in Greater Manchester. Participants: In total 24,510 women aged 20–64 years were enrolled between July 2001 and September 2003. Interventions: HPV testing was performed on the liquid-based cytology (LBC) sample obtained at screening. Women were randomised in a ratio of 3:1 to have the HPV test result revealed and acted upon if persistently positive in cytology-negative cases or concealed. A detailed health economic evaluation and a psychosocial and psychosexual assessment were also performed. Main outcome measures: The primary outcome was CIN3+ in round 2. Secondary outcomes included an economic assessment and psychosocial effects. A large HPV genotyping study was also conducted. Results: In round 1 there were 313 CIN3+ lesions, representing a prevalence in the revealed and concealed arms of 1.27% and 1.31% respectively (p = 0.81). Round 2 (30–48 months) involved 14,230 (58.1%) of the women screened in round 1 and only 31 CIN3+ were detected; the CIN3 rate was not significantly different between the revealed and concealed arms. A less restrictive definition of round 2 (26–54 months) increased CIN3+ to 45 and CIN3+ incidence in the arms was significantly different (p = 0.05). There was no difference in CIN3+ between the arms when rounds 1 and 2 were combined. Prevalence of highrisk HPV types was age-dependent. Overall prevalence of HPV16/18 increased with severity of yskaryosis. Mean costs per woman in round 1 were £72 and £56 for the revealed and concealed arms (p < 0.001); an age-adjustment reduced these mean costs to £65 and £52. Incremental cost-effectiveness ratio for detecting additional CIN3+ by adding HPV testing to LBC screening in round 1 was £38,771. Age-adjusted mean cost for LBC primary screening with HPV triage was £39 compared with £48 for HPV primary screening with LBC triage. HPV testing did not appear to cause significant psychosocial distress. Conclusions: Routine HPV testing did not add significantly to the effectiveness of LBC in this study. No significant adverse psychosocial effects were detected. It would not be cost-effective to screen with cytology and HPV combined but HPV testing, as either triage or initial test triaged by cytology, would be cheaper than cytology without HPV testing. LBC would not benefit from combination with HPV; it is highly effective as primary screening but HPV testing has twin advantages of high negative predictive value and automated platforms enabling high throughput. HPV primary screening would require major contraction and reconfiguration of laboratory services. Follow-up continues in ARTISTIC while maintaining concealment for a further 3-year round of screening, which will help in screening protocol development for the post-vaccination era

Collagen sequence analysis reveals evolutionary history of extinct West Indies Nesophontes (‘island shrews’)

Ancient biomolecule analyses are proving increasingly useful in the study of evolutionary patterns, including extinct organisms. Proteomic sequencing techniques complement genomic approaches, having the potential to examine lineages further back in time than achievable using ancient DNA, given the less stringent preservation requirements. In this study, we demonstrate the ability to use collagen sequence analyses via proteomics to provide species delimitation as a foundation for informing evolutionary patterns. We uncover biogeographic information of an enigmatic and recently extinct lineage of Nesophontes across their range on the Caribbean islands. First, evolutionary relationships reconstructed from collagen sequences reaffirm the affinity of Nesophontes and Solenodon as sister taxa within Solenodonota. This relationship helps lay the foundation for testing geographical isolation hypotheses across islands within the Greater Antilles, including movement from Cuba towards Hispaniola. Second, our results are consistent with Cuba having just two species of Nesophontes (N. micrus and N. major) that exhibit intrapopulation morphological variation. Finally, analysis of the recently described species from the Cayman Islands (N. hemicingulus) indicates that it is a closer relative to the Cuban species, N. major rather than N. micrus as previously speculated. Our proteomic sequencing improves our understanding of the origin, evolution, and distribution of this extinct mammal lineage, particularly with respect to approximate timing of speciation. Such knowledge is vital for this biodiversity hotspot, where the magnitude of recent extinctions may obscure true estimates of species richness in the past