Assessing the impact of future CAP reforms on the demand of production factors

The CAP reform process has been a central issue for agricultural economics research in recent years, and is gaining further attention in view of the post-2013 perspectives. The objective of this paper is to assess ex-ante the effect of different post-2013 CAP and market scenarios on the demand of productions factors. The paper is based on the use of farm household dynamic programming models maximising the net present value with a time horizon until 2030. A representative model has been implemented for 18 different farming systems in 8 EU countries. Changes in marginal values of selected resource constraints (land, labour and capital) are used to assess the potential effect of different scenarios on farm-household demand of production factors. Results highlight that both policy and market conditions change strongly the demand of productive factors.CAP reform, Investment behaviour, Farm Household model, Factor markets, Agricultural and Food Policy, Q12,

Detecting chaos in particle accelerators through the frequency map analysis method

The motion of beams in particle accelerators is dominated by a plethora of non-linear effects which can enhance chaotic motion and limit their performance. The application of advanced non-linear dynamics methods for detecting and correcting these effects and thereby increasing the region of beam stability plays an essential role during the accelerator design phase but also their operation. After describing the nature of non-linear effects and their impact on performance parameters of different particle accelerator categories, the theory of non-linear particle motion is outlined. The recent developments on the methods employed for the analysis of chaotic beam motion are detailed. In particular, the ability of the frequency map analysis method to detect chaotic motion and guide the correction of non-linear effects is demonstrated in particle tracking simulations but also experimental data.Comment: Submitted for publication in Chaos, Focus Issue: Chaos Detection Methods and Predictabilit

Assessing the impact of future CAP reforms on the demand of production factors

The CAP reform process has been a central issue for agricultural economics research in recent years, and is gaining further attention in view of the post-2013 perspectives. The objective of this paper is to assess ex-ante the effect of different post-2013 CAP and market scenarios on the demand of productions factors. The paper is based on the use of farm household dynamic programming models maximising the net present value with a time horizon until 2030. A representative model has been implemented for 18 different farming systems in 8 EU countries. Changes in marginal values of selected resource constraints (land, labour and capital) are used to assess the potential effect of different scenarios on farm-household demand of production factors. Results highlight that both policy and market conditions change strongly the demand of productive factors.JRC.J.4-Agriculture and Life Sciences in the Econom

Measurement of Resonance Driving Terms from Turn-by-Turn Data

It has been shown that the Fourier analysis of recorded turn-by-turn tracking data can be used to derive resonance terms of an accelerator. Besides the resonance driving terms, the non-linear one-turn map can be obtained with all non-linearities arising from magnetic imperfections and correction elements. This could be interesting for the LHC which will be a machine that is dominated by strong non-linear fields. The methods works very well for tracking data and is expected to work equally well for turn-by-turn beam data. The precision to which these terms can be determined relies on the frequency analysis tool. To demonstrate the feasibility of the method, measurements of real accelerators are presented in which the beam is kicked once and the beam oscillations are recorded over several thousand turns. Besides the tune, the strengths of resonance driving terms have been measured and the results are compared with numerical calculation

Assessing the impact of future CAP reforms on the demand of production factors

The CAP reform process has been a central issue for agricultural economics research in recent years, and is gaining further attention in view of the post-2013 perspectives. The objective of this paper is to assess ex-ante the effect of different post-2013 CAP and market scenarios on the demand of productions factors. The paper is based on the use of farm household dynamic programming models maximising the net present value with a time horizon until 2030. A representative model has been implemented for 18 different farming systems in 8 EU countries. Changes in marginal values of selected resource constraints (land, labour and capital) are used to assess the potential effect of different scenarios on farm-household demand of production factors. Results highlight that both policy and market conditions change strongly the demand of productive factors

Farm Investment Behaviour under the CAP Reform Process

The results of the study, based on survey analysis as well as on modelling of farm behaviour, can be summarised in four main outcomes: Similar to the results of the first Investment study carried out in 2006 and published in 2008 (Gallerani. et. al.), in the context of the present study (carried out in 2009) for about half of the farms decoupling did not result in any change. Among those farms showing some reaction, one of the more prominent effects is the increase in on-farm investment. The price trends in 2007/2008 and the ongoing economic and financial crisis have partially reshaped access to credit, perceptions of objectives, constraints and expectations. In particular, farms have witnessed a major reduction in access to credit, particularly the share of farms using short term credit, which dropped from more than 40% in 2006 to about 7% in 2009. The change in economic conditions has increased this role of the CAP, and the importance of CAP payments in covering current expenditures has become more evident. Prices confirm their role as the key variable for investment choices. The results of the modelling exercise confirm that farm and farm-household income and investment choices depend more on the price level than on the level of payment received. Altogether, the combined effect of the recent policy reform (decoupling and first pillar payment reductions), as well as price and cost developments tend to reinforce the role of policy for the economic and social sustainability of farming. Notably, policy areas such as income support, investment and credit management, market access, as well as transitory and cross-policy mechanisms, appear to be of particular importance. Uncertainty (and related risk-management instruments) seems to play an increasing role in the investment decision process.JRC.J.5-Agriculture and Life Sciences in the Econom

Growth hormone response to growth hormone-releasing peptide-2 in growth hormone-deficient Little mice

OBJECTIVE: To investigate a possible direct, growth hormone-releasing, hormone-independent action of a growth hormone secretagogue, GHRP-2, in pituitary somatotroph cells in the presence of inactive growth hormonereleasing hormone receptors. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The responses of serum growth hormone to acutely injected growth hormone-releasing P-2 in lit/litmice, which represent a model of GH deficiency arising frommutated growth hormone-releasing hormonereceptors, were compared to those observed in the heterozygous (lit/&#43;) littermates and wild-type (&#43;/&#43;) C57BL/6J mice. RESULTS: After the administration of 10 mcg of growth hormone-releasing P-2 to lit/lit mice, a growth hormone release of 9.3±1.5 ng/ml was observed compared with 1.04±1.15 ng/ml in controls (p<0.001). In comparison, an intermediate growth hormone release of 34.5±9.7 ng/ml and a higher growth hormone release of 163±46 ng/ml were induced in the lit/&#43; mice and wild-type mice, respectively. Thus, GHRP-2 stimulated growth hormone in the lit/lit mice, and the release of growth hormone in vivo may be only partially dependent on growth hormone-releasing hormone. Additionally, the plasma leptin and ghrelin levels were evaluated in the lit/lit mice under basal and stimulated conditions. CONCLUSIONS: Here, we have demonstrated that lit/lit mice, which harbor a germline mutation in the Growth hormone-releasing hormone gene, maintain a limited but statistically significant growth hormone elevation after exogenous stimulation with GHRP-2. The present data probably reflect a direct, growth hormone-independent effect on Growth hormone S (ghrelin) stimulation in the remaining pituitary somatotrophs of little mice that is mediated by growth hormone S-R 1a

EM Training of Hidden Markov Models for Shape Recognition Using Cyclic Strings

Shape descriptions and the corresponding matching techniques must be robust to noise and invariant to transformations for their use in recognition tasks. Most transformations are relatively easy to handle when contours are represented by strings. However, starting point invariance is difficult to achieve. One interesting possibility is the use of cyclic strings, which are strings with no starting and final points. Here we present the use of Hidden Markov Models for modelling cyclic strings and their training using Expectation Maximization. Experimental results show that our proposal outperforms other methods in the literature