Policy instruments in the Common Agricultural Policy

Policy changes in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) can be explained in terms of the exhaustion and long-term contradictions of policy instruments. Changes in policy instruments have reoriented the policy without any change in formal Treaty goals. The social and economic efficacy of instruments in terms of evidence-based policy analysis was a key factor in whether they were delegitimized. The original policy instruments were generally dysfunctional, but reframing the policy in terms of a multifunctionality paradigm permitted the development of more efficacious instruments. A dynamic interaction takes place between the instruments and policy informed by the predominant discourses

A 24-Week, Randomized, Treat-to-Target Trial Comparing Initiation of Insulin Glargine Once-Daily With Insulin Detemir Twice-Daily in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes Inadequately Controlled on Oral Glucose-Lowering Drugs

OBJECTIVE - To determine whether glargine is noninferior to detemir regarding the percentage of patients reaching A1C <7% without symptomatic hypoglycemia <= 3.1 mmol/l. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS - In this 24-week trial, 973 insulin-naive type 2 diabetic patients on stable oral glucose-lowering drugs with A1CS. 7.0-10.5% were randomized to glargine once daily or detemir twice daily. Insulin doses were systematically titrated. RESULTS - 27.5 and 25.6% of patients reached the primary outcome with glargine and detemir, respectively, demonstrating the noninferiority of glargine. Improvements in A1C were -1.46 +/- 1.09% for glargine and -1.54 +/- 1.11% for detemir (P = 0.149), with similar proportions of patients achieving A1C <7% (P = 0.254) but more detemir-treated patients reaching A1C <6.5% (P = 0.017). Hypoglycemia risk was similar. Weight gain was higher for glargine (difference: 0.77 kg, P <0.001). Glargine doses were lower than detemir doses: 43.5 +/- 129.0 vs. 76.5 +/- 50.5 units/day (P <0.001). CONCLUSIONS - In insulin-naive type 2 diabetic patients, glargine reached similar control as detemir, with more weight gain, but required significantly lower dose

The impacts of EU accession on the agriculture of the Visegrad Countries

The Visegrad Countries (VC)2 joined the European Union in 2004, which has offered several possibilities and challenges for their agriculture. The aim of the paper is to evaluate the status of the sector in the light of latest available data as well as to identify the factors lying behind different country performances. Results suggest that EU accession has had a diverse impact on the Visegrad Countries’ agriculture and member states capitalised their possibilities in a different manner, due to initial conditions and pre- and post-accession policies

Concurrent adaptation to opposing visual displacements during an alternating movement.

It has been suggested that, during tasks in which subjects are exposed to a visual rotation of cursor feedback, alternating bimanual adaptation to opposing rotations is as rapid as unimanual adaptation to a single rotation (Bock et al. in Exp Brain Res 162:513–519, 2005). However, that experiment did not test strict alternation of the limbs but short alternate blocks of trials. We have therefore tested adaptation under alternate left/right hand movement with opposing rotations. It was clear that the left and right hand, within the alternating conditions, learnt to adapt to the opposing displacements at a similar rate suggesting that two adaptive states were formed concurrently. We suggest that the separate limbs are used as contextual cues to switch between the relevant adaptive states. However, we found that during online correction the alternating conditions had a significantly slower rate of adaptation in comparison to the unimanual conditions. Control conditions indicate that the results are not directly due the alternation between limbs or to the constant switching of vision between the two eyes. The negative interference may originate from the requirement to dissociate the visual information of these two alternating displacements to allow online control of the two arms

Agri-food business: Global challenges â Innovative solutions

The rise of a western-style middle class in many successful emerging economies like China currently is inducing deep structural changes on agricultural world markets and within the global agri-food business. As a result of both higher incomes and concerns over product safety and quality the global demand for high-quality and safe food products is increasing significantly. In order to meet the new required quality, globally minimum quality standards are rising and private standards emerging. All over the world these developments cause adjustments at the enterprise, chain and market levels. At the same time, the tremendously increasing demand for renewable energy has led to the emergence of a highly promising market for biomass production. This has far-reaching consequences for resource allocation in the agri-food business, for the environment, for the poor in developing countries and for agricultural policy reforms. The challenges increase with ongoing liberalisation, globalisation and standardisation, all of which change trade patterns for agricultural and food commodities, and influence production costs and commodity prices. The objective of the IAMO Forum is to show opportunities as well as risks for all participants of the food economy in the ongoing globalisation process: for small peasants in developing countries, farmers in Europe and globally active food enterprises and retailers. The success of enterprises depends on the ability to find innovative solutions with regard to the organisation of enterprises, chains, and markets, as well as future policy design. Concerning bio-energy strategies has to be identified to combat global warming most efficiently and concurrently attenuate the competition between "tank and table" on farmland. IAMO Forum 2008, as well as this book, would not have been possible without the engagement of many people and institutions. We thank the authors of the papers, as well as the referees. Furthermore we are highly indebted to MARLIES LOHR, NADINE GIEMSA and RONNY RECKE who in an outstanding way contributed to the organisation of the Forum. This is true as well for the IAMO administration, whose work we gratefully acknowledge. Many sponsors has funded the IAMO Forum 2008. We are very grateful to the German Research Foundation (DFG), The Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Production in Germany, The Ministry of Cultural Affairs of the Federal State Saxony-Anhalt, Germany and last but not least the City of Halle. Further Conference sponsors are the BIONADE Corporation, Gaensefurther Mineral Water, The Wine Growers Association of the Region Saale-Unstrut, Germany, Obsthof am SüÃen See GmbH, Monsanto Company, KWS Saat AG, Sachsen-Anhalt-Tours, Baumkuchen Salzwedel and the Hallesches Brauhaus.Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Agricultural Finance, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Industrial Organization, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, International Development, Marketing, Political Economy,

Food Price Shocks and the Political Economy of Global Agricultural and Development Policy

The recent spikes of global food prices induced a rapid increase in mass media coverage, public policy attention, and donor funding for food security and for agriculture and rural poverty. This has occurred while the shift from low to high food prices has induced a shift in (demographic or social) location of the hunger and poverty effects, but the total number of undernourished and poor people has declined over the same period. We suggest that the observed pattern can be explained by the presence of a global urban bias on agriculture and food policy in developing countries, and we discuss whether this global urban bias may actually benefit poor farmers. We argue that the food price spikes have succeeded where others have failed in the past: to move the problems of poor and hungry farmers to the top of the policy agenda and to induce development and donor strategies to help them

WiseEye: next generation expandable and programmable camera trap platform for wildlife research

Funding: The work was supported by the RCUK Digital Economy programme to the dot.rural Digital Economy Hub; award reference: EP/G066051/1. The work of S. Newey and RJI was part funded by the Scottish Government's Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services (RESAS). Details published as an Open Source Toolkit, PLOS Journals at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0169758Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Critical Reflections on Methodological Challenge in Arts and Dementia Evaluation and Research

Methodological rigour, or its absence, is often a focus of concern for the emerging field of evaluation and research around arts and dementia. However, this paper suggests that critical attention should also be paid to the way in which individual perceptions, hidden assumptions and underlying social and political structures influence methodological work in the field. Such attention will be particularly important for addressing methodological challenges relating to contextual variability, ethics, value judgement, and signification identified through a literature review on this topic. Understanding how, where and when evaluators and researchers experience such challenges may help to identify fruitful approaches for future evaluation. This paper is based upon a presentation on the subject given at the First International Research Conference on the Arts and Dementia: Theory, Methodology and Evidence on 9 March 2017