Decoupled Programs, Payment Incidence, and Factor Markets: Evidence from Market Experiments

We use laboratory market experiments to assess the impact of asymmetric knowledge of a per-unit subsidy and the effect of a decoupled annual income subsidy on factor market outcomes. Results indicate that when the subsidy is tied to the factor as a per-unit subsidy, regardless of full or asymmetric knowledge for market participants, subsidized factor buyers distribute nearly 22 percent of the subsidy to factor sellers. When the subsidy is fully decoupled from the factor, as is the case with the annual payment, payment incidence is mitigated and prices are not statistically different from the no-policy treatment.laboratory market experiments, agricultural subsidies, subsidy incidence, land market, ex ante policy analysis, Agricultural and Food Policy, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, Q18, D03, C92,

Development and Application of a Camper Growth Index (CGI-C)

Many people know about the value of organized camp experiences for youth, but few instruments measure camp experiences relative to positive youth development. Over the past century, most studies have found positive outcomes on a variety of dimensions, but these studies have used mainly convenience nonrandornized samples, different criteria, and a variety of instruments in their assessments. The purpose of this paper is to present evidence about the psychometric properties of a scale specifically designed to measure youth development outcomes through camp experiences

Maternal Immune Activation in Nonhuman Primates Alters Social Attention in Juvenile Offspring

BACKGROUND: Sickness during pregnancy is associated with an increased risk of offspring neurodevelopmental disorders. Rodent models have played a critical role in establishing causal relationships and identifying mechanisms of altered brain and behavior development in pups prenatally exposed to maternal immune activation (MIA). We recently developed a novel nonhuman primate model to bridge the gap between human epidemiological studies and rodent models of prenatal immune challenge. Our initial results demonstrated that rhesus monkeys given the viral mimic synthetic double-stranded RNA (polyinosinic:polycytidylic acid stabilized with poly-l-lysine) during pregnancy produce offspring with abnormal repetitive behaviors, altered communication, and atypical social interactions. METHODS: We utilized noninvasive infrared eye tracking to further evaluate social processing capabilities in a subset of the first trimester MIA-exposed offspring (n = 4) and control animals (n = 4) from our previous study. RESULTS: As juveniles, the MIA offspring differed from control animals on several measures of social attention, particularly when viewing macaque faces depicting the fear grimace facial expression. Compared with control animals, MIA offspring had a longer latency before fixating on the eyes, had fewer fixations directed at the eyes, and spent less total time fixating on the eyes of the fear grimace images. CONCLUSIONS: In the rhesus monkey model, exposure to MIA at the end of the first trimester results in abnormal gaze patterns to salient social information. The use of noninvasive eye tracking extends the findings from rodent MIA models to more human-like behaviors resembling those in both autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia

Aggressive shadowing of a low-dimensional model of atmospheric dynamics

Predictions of the future state of the Earth's atmosphere suffer from the consequences of chaos: numerical weather forecast models quickly diverge from observations as uncertainty in the initial state is amplified by nonlinearity. One measure of the utility of a forecast is its shadowing time, informally given by the period of time for which the forecast is a reasonable description of reality. The present work uses the Lorenz 096 coupled system, a simplified nonlinear model of atmospheric dynamics, to extend a recently developed technique for lengthening the shadowing time of a dynamical system. Ensemble forecasting is used to make forecasts with and without inflation, a method whereby the ensemble is regularly expanded artificially along dimensions whose uncertainty is contracting. The first goal of this work is to compare model forecasts, with and without inflation, to a true trajectory created by integrating a modified version of the same model. The second goal is to establish whether inflation can increase the maximum shadowing time for a single optimal member of the ensemble. In the second experiment the true trajectory is known a priori, and only the closest ensemble members are retained at each time step, a technique known as stalking. Finally, a targeted inflation is introduced to both techniques to reduce the number of instances in which inflation occurs in directions likely to be incommensurate with the true trajectory. Results varied for inflation, with success dependent upon the experimental design parameters (e.g. size of state space, inflation amount). However, a more targeted inflation successfully reduced the number of forecast degradations without significantly reducing the number of forecast improvements. Utilized appropriately, inflation has the potential to improve predictions of the future state of atmospheric phenomena, as well as other physical systems.Comment: 14 pages, 16 figure

Executive control in older Welsh monolinguals and bilinguals

Evidence for a bilingual advantage in executive control has led to the suggestion that being bilingual might protect against late-life cognitive decline. We assessed the performance of socially homogeneous groups of older (≥ 60 years) bilingual Welsh/English (n = 50) and monolingual English (n = 49) speakers on a range of executive control tasks yielding 17 indices for comparison. Effect sizes (> .2) favoured monolinguals on 10 indices, with negligible differences observed on the remaining 7 indices. Univariate analyses indicated that monolinguals performed significantly better on two of 17 indices. Multivariate analysis indicated no significant overall differences between the two groups in performance on executive tasks. Older Welsh bilinguals do not show a bilingual advantage in executive control, and where differences are observed, these tend to favour monolinguals. A possible explanation may lie in the nature of the sociolinguistic context and its influence on cognitive processing in the bilingual group

Open Data, Collaborative Working Platforms, and Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Building an Early Career Scientist Community of Practice to Leverage Ocean Observatories Initiative Data to Address Critical Questions in Marine Science

Ocean observing systems are well-recognized as platforms for long-term monitoring of near-shore and remote locations in the global ocean. High-quality observatory data is freely available and accessible to all members of the global oceanographic community—a democratization of data that is particularly useful for early career scientists (ECS), enabling ECS to conduct research independent of traditional funding models or access to laboratory and field equipment. The concurrent collection of distinct data types with relevance for oceanographic disciplines including physics, chemistry, biology, and geology yields a unique incubator for cutting-edge, timely, interdisciplinary research. These data are both an opportunity and an incentive for ECS to develop the computational skills and collaborative relationships necessary to interpret large data sets. Here, we use observatory data to demonstrate the potential for these interdisciplinary approaches by presenting a case study on the water-column response to anomalous atmospheric events (i.e., major storms) on the shelf of the Mid-Atlantic Bight southwest of Cape Cod, United States. Using data from the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) Pioneer Array, we applied a simple data mining method to identify anomalous atmospheric events over a four-year period. Two closely occurring storm events in late 2018 were then selected to explore the dynamics of water-column response using mooring data from across the array. The comprehensive ECS knowledge base and computational skill sets allowed identification of data issues in the OOI data streams and technologically sound characterization of data from multiple sensor packages to broadly characterize ocean-atmosphere interactions. An ECS-driven approach that emphasizes collaborative and interdisciplinary working practices adds significant value to existing datasets and programs such as OOI and has the potential to produce meaningful scientific advances. Future success in utilizing ocean observatory data requires continued investment in ECS education, collaboration, and research; in turn, the ECS community provides feedback, develops knowledge, and builds new tools to enhance the value of ocean observing systems. These findings present an argument for building a community of practice to augment ECS ocean scientist skills and foster collaborations to extend the context, reach, and societal utility of ocean science

A roadmap for research in octoploid strawberry

The cultivated strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa) is an allo-octoploid species, originating nearly 300 years ago from wild progenitors from the Americas. Since that time the strawberry has become the most widely cultivated fruit crop in the world, universally appealing due to its sensory qualities and health benefits. The recent publication of the first high-quality chromosome-scale octoploid strawberry genome (cv. Camarosa) is enabling rapid advances in genetics, stimulating scientific debate and provoking new research questions. In this forward-looking review we propose avenues of research toward new biological insights and applications to agriculture. Among these are the origins of the genome, characterization of genetic variants, and big data approaches to breeding. Key areas of research in molecular biology will include the control of flowering, fruit development, fruit quality, and plant–pathogen interactions. In order to realize this potential as a global community, investments in genome resources must be continually augmented.Peer reviewe

Effects of Nitrogen and Planting Seed Size on Cotton Growth, Development, and Yield

A standardized experiment was conducted during 2009 and 2010 at 20 location-years across U.S. cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.)-producing states to compare the N use requirement of contemporary cotton cultivars based on their planting seed size. Treatments consisted of three cotton varieties with planting seed of different numbers of seed per kg and N rates of 0, 45, 90, and 134 kg ha⁻¹. Soil at each trial location was sampled and tested for nitrate presence. High levels of soil nitrate (>91 N-NO₃⁻kg ha⁻¹) were found in Arizona and western Texas, and soil nitrate in the range of 45 to 73 kg N-NO₃⁻ ha⁻¹ was found at locations in the central United States. Cotton lint yield responded to applied N at 11 of 20 locations. Considering only sites that responded to applied N, highest lint yields were achieved with 112 to 224 kg ha⁻¹of applied plus pre-plant residual soil NO₃—translating to an optimal N requirement of 23 kg ha⁻¹ per 218 kg bale of lint produced. Among the varieties tested those with medium-sized seed produced higher yields in response to N than did larger and smaller seeded varieties. Varieties with larger seed had longer and stronger fibers, higher fiber length uniformity than small seeded varieties and decreased micronaire. Seed protein and oil increased and decreased slightly in response to increasing amounts of soil nitrate plus applied N, respectively

CHEMICAL EVOLUTION IN HIGH-MASS STAR-FORMING REGIONS: RESULTS FROM THE MALT90 SURVEY

The chemical changes of high-mass star-forming regions provide a potential method for classifying their evolutionary stages and, ultimately, ages. In this study, we search for correlations between molecular abundances and the evolutionary stages of dense molecular clumps associated with high-mass star formation. We use the molecular line maps from Year 1 of the Millimetre Astronomy Legacy Team 90 GHz (MALT90) Survey. The survey mapped several hundred individual star-forming clumps chosen from the ATLASGAL survey to span the complete range of evolution, from prestellar to protostellar to H II regions. The evolutionary stage of each clump is classified using the Spitzer GLIMPSE/MIPSGAL mid-IR surveys. Where possible, we determine the dust temperatures and H2 column densities for each clump from Herschel Hi-GAL continuum data. From MALT90 data, we measure the integrated intensities of the N2H+, HCO+, HCN and HNC (1-0) lines, and derive the column densities and abundances of N2H+ and HCO+. The Herschel dust temperatures increase as a function of the IR-based Spitzer evolutionary classification scheme, with the youngest clumps being the coldest, which gives confidence that this classification method provides a reliable way to assign evolutionary stages to clumps. Both N2H+ and HCO+ abundances increase as a function of evolutionary stage, whereas the N2H+ (1-0) to HCO+ (1-0) integrated intensity ratios show no discernable trend. The HCN (1-0) to HNC(1-0) integrated intensity ratios show marginal evidence of an increase as the clumps evolve

Regulation of GIP and GLP1 Receptor Cell Surface Expression by N-Glycosylation and Receptor Heteromerization

In response to a meal, Glucose-dependent Insulinotropic Polypeptide (GIP) and Glucagon-like Peptide-1 (GLP-1) are released from gut endocrine cells into the circulation and interact with their cognate G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs). Receptor activation results in tissue-selective pleiotropic responses that include augmentation of glucose-induced insulin secretion from pancreatic beta cells. N-glycosylation and receptor oligomerization are co-translational processes that are thought to regulate the exit of functional GPCRs from the ER and their maintenance at the plasma membrane. Despite the importance of these regulatory processes, their impact on functional expression of GIP and GLP-1 receptors has not been well studied. Like many family B GPCRs, both the GIP and GLP-1 receptors possess a large extracellular N-terminus with multiple consensus sites for Asn-linked (N)-glycosylation. Here, we show that each of these Asn residues is glycosylated when either human receptor is expressed in Chinese hamster ovary cells. N-glycosylation enhances cell surface expression and function in parallel but exerts stronger control over the GIP receptor than the GLP-1 receptor. N-glycosylation mainly lengthens receptor half-life by reducing degradation in the endoplasmic reticulum. N-glycosylation is also required for expression of the GIP receptor at the plasma membrane and efficient GIP potentiation of glucose-induced insulin secretion from the INS-1 pancreatic beta cell line. Functional expression of a GIP receptor mutant lacking N-glycosylation is rescued by co-expressed wild type GLP1 receptor, which, together with data obtained using Bioluminescence Resonance Energy Transfer, suggests formation of a GIP-GLP1 receptor heteromer