DETERMINANTS OF COW-CALF PAIR PRICES

Cow-calf prices are determined by interaction of many factors. At a particular auction, cow-calf pair prices often had a range of 75% of the mean price. This variability suggests that producers need to be informed regarding cow-calf price determinants. This study uses auction data during 1993 to estimate price differentials associated with cow-calf pair characteristics using a hedonic model. Cow breed, age, health, conditions, horns, frame, and whether the cow had been bred back were significant price determinants. Calf weight, health, and frame had significant price impacts. Highest prices were paid for pens containing 9-12 pairs of young Angus, dehorned, bred back, healthy cows with heavy healthy calves.Demand and Price Analysis,

Siting Urban Agriculture as a Green Infrastructure Strategy for Land Use Planning in Austin, TX

Green infrastructure refers to a type of land use design that mimics the natural water cycle by using the infiltration capacities of vegetation, soils, and other natural processes to mitigate stormwater runoff. As a multifunctional landscape, urban agriculture should be seen as a highly beneficial tool for urban planning not only because of its ability to function as a green stormwater management strategy, but also due to the multiple social and environmental benefits it provides. In 2012, the city of Austin adopted a major planning approach titled the “Imagine Austin Comprehensive Plan” (IACP) outlining the city’s vision for future growth and land use up to 2039. The plan explicitly addresses the adoption of green infrastructure as a target for future land use with urban agriculture as a central component. Addressing this area of land use planning will require tools that can locate suitable areas within the city ideal for the development of green infrastructure. In this study, a process was developed to create a spatially explicit method of siting urban agriculture as a green infrastructure tool in hydrologically sensitive areas, or areas prone to runoff, in east Austin. The method uses geospatial software to spatially analyze open access datasets that include land use, a digital elevation model, and prime farmland soils. Through this method a spatial relationship can be made between areas of high surface runoff and where the priority placement of urban farms should be sited as a useful component of green infrastructure. Planners or geospatial analysts could use such information, along with other significant factors and community input, to aid decision makers in the placement of urban agriculture. This spatially explicit approach for siting potential urban farms, will support the integration of urban agriculture as part of the land use planning of Austin

"Chicken wars", water fights, and other contested ecologies along the rural-urban interface in California's Sierra Nevada foothills

The regional political ecology approach entails attention to chains of explanation both up and down scale while acknowledging both the similarities and distinctiveness between and among local level patterns and processes. In this paper, I apply the regional political ecology approach to the study of the rural-urban interface. The rural-urban interface is the site of multi-dimensional (environmental, economic, sociocultural) change as shifts in landscapes and lifestyles iteratively influence land use/management and the cultural context of places in flux. In Calaveras County, California (USA), situated in the Sierra Nevada foothills, certain features of and activities on the landscape are being mobilized by a variety of actors, in different ways, and at cross-purposes. In two cases in particular, specific resources (water) and activities (backyard agriculture) became powerful symbolic figures in increasingly heated public policy debates revolving around the use and value of various landscapes in the area. Using mixed, though mainly ethnographic, methods, I examine these instances of environmental conflict, one revolving around a sheep ranch turned golf course and another focused on the proper place of chickens, along the rural-urban interface. After analyzing the processes of change driving these contested ecologies, I describe the challenges of negotiating what is "acceptable" in the context of place-based change and differently situated actors. I conclude by offering some comments on the difficulties of managing competing expectations of use and function in rural places and arguing the significance of pursuing a particularly regional political ecology. Keywords: rural-urban interface; (regional) political ecology; land and environmental management; contested ecologies; environmental conflict

ImageJ2: ImageJ for the next generation of scientific image data

ImageJ is an image analysis program extensively used in the biological sciences and beyond. Due to its ease of use, recordable macro language, and extensible plug-in architecture, ImageJ enjoys contributions from non-programmers, amateur programmers, and professional developers alike. Enabling such a diversity of contributors has resulted in a large community that spans the biological and physical sciences. However, a rapidly growing user base, diverging plugin suites, and technical limitations have revealed a clear need for a concerted software engineering effort to support emerging imaging paradigms, to ensure the software's ability to handle the requirements of modern science. Due to these new and emerging challenges in scientific imaging, ImageJ is at a critical development crossroads. We present ImageJ2, a total redesign of ImageJ offering a host of new functionality. It separates concerns, fully decoupling the data model from the user interface. It emphasizes integration with external applications to maximize interoperability. Its robust new plugin framework allows everything from image formats, to scripting languages, to visualization to be extended by the community. The redesigned data model supports arbitrarily large, N-dimensional datasets, which are increasingly common in modern image acquisition. Despite the scope of these changes, backwards compatibility is maintained such that this new functionality can be seamlessly integrated with the classic ImageJ interface, allowing users and developers to migrate to these new methods at their own pace. ImageJ2 provides a framework engineered for flexibility, intended to support these requirements as well as accommodate future needs

Does the region still have relevance? (Re)considering "regional" political ecology

Although the field of political ecology began as fundamentally regional, a clear, coherent regional political ecology approach has failed to emerge. This introductory essay frames a collection of articles compiled to take up the idea of pursuing a specifically regional political ecology, discussing both the problematic and the beneficial aspects of regions and regional approaches. In this introduction, we discuss the strengths and the weaknesses of using the region as a heuristic within the field. Our focus, and that of the articles introduced, is to consider what analytical work this concept can do, addressing the question: how and why how are regions useful within political ecology? Our intention is not to provide a guide to using the concept in political ecology but rather to highlight how regions are currently being used, and to reopen discussions of the utility of the concept for scholars explicitly working towards justice and sustainability in a variety of contexts. After describing the value of a using regional political ecology approach, we emphasize the work still yet to be done, prompting other scholars to consider regional political ecology approaches as they do the work that they do.   Keywords: regional political ecology; region; political ecology; geography This is the introductory paper in Innisfree McKinnon and Colleen Hiner (eds.) 2015. "(Re)considering regional political ecology?", Special Section of the Journal of Political Ecology 23: 115-203

Multiple needle‐pass percutaneous testicular sperm aspiration as first‐line treatment in azoospermic men

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/144689/1/andr12143_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/144689/2/andr12143.pd

A Distance-Limited Imaging Survey of Sub-Stellar Companions to Solar Neighborhood Stars

We report techniques and results of a Palomar 200-inch (5 m) adaptive optics imaging survey of sub-stellar companions to solar-type stars. The survey consists of Ks coronagraphic observations of 21 FGK dwarfs out to 20 pc (median distance about 17 pc). At 1-arcsec separation (17 projected AU) from a typical target system, the survey achieves median sensitivities 7 mag fainter than the parent star. In terms of companion mass, that corresponds to sensitivities of 50MJ (1 Gyr), 70MJ (solar age), and 75MJ (10 Gyr), using the evolutionary models of Baraffe and colleagues. Using common proper motion to distinguish companions from field stars, we find that no system shows positive evidence of a previously unknown substellar companion (searchable separation about 20-250 projected AU at the median target distance).Comment: 29 pages, 5 figures. Carson et al. 2008, AJ, in pres

Mergers and interactions in SDSS type 2 quasars at z~0.3-0.4. SDSS J143027.66-005614.8: a case study

We present a compilation of HST images of 58 luminous SDSS type 2 AGNs at 0.3<z<0.4. 42 of them are type 2 quasars, which are a good representation of all optically selected SDSS type 2 quasars in this range. We find that the majority of the host galaxies are ellipticals (30/42 or 71%). This is consistent with studies of radio loud and radio quiet type 1 quasars which show that their host galaxies are in general ellipticals. A significant fraction of type 2 quasars (>25/42 or >59%) show clear signatures of morphological disturbance which are in most cases identified with merger/interaction processes. We discuss this in the context of related works on type 2 quasars and powerful radio galaxies. We study in detail the particular case of the radio quiet type 2 quasar SDSS J143027.66-005614.8 at z=0.32 based on VLT, HST and SDSS imaging and spectroscopic data. We discuss the global properties of the object in the context of theoretical and observational studies of galaxy mergers/interactions and their role in the triggering of the nuclear and star formation activities in the most luminous active galaxies.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 25 pages, 21 figure

Interactions, star formation and extended nebulae in SDSS type 2 quasars at 0.3<~ z <~ 0.6

We present long-slit spectroscopy and imaging data obtained with FORS2 on the Very Large Telescope of 13 optically selected type 2 quasars at z~0.3-0.6 from the original sample of Zakamska et al. (2003). The sample is likely to be affected by different selection biases. We investigate the evidence for: a) mergers/interactions b) star formation activity in the neighborhood of the quasars and c) extended emission line regions and their nature. Evidence for mergers/interactions is found in 5/13 objects. This is a lower limit for our sample, given the shallowness of most of our continuum images. Although AGN photoionization cannot be totally discarded, line ratios consistent with stellar photoionization are found in general in companion galaxies/knots/nuclei near these same objects. On the contrary, the gas in the neighborhood of the quasar nucleus shows line ratios inconsistent with HII galaxies and typical of AGN photoionized nebulae. A natural scenario to explain the observations is that star formation is ongoing in companion galaxies/knots/nuclei, possibly triggered by the interactions. These systems are, therefore, composite in their emission line properties showing a combination of AGN and star formation features. Extended emission line regions (EELRs) have been found in 7/13 objects, although this fraction might be higher if a complete spatial coverage around the quasars was performed. The sizes vary between few and up to 64 kpc. In general, the EELRs apparently consist of an extended nebula associated with the quasar. In at least one case the EELR is associated with ionized tidal features.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 19 pages, 30 figure