REAL OPTIONS ANALYSIS FOR INVESTMENT IN ORGANIC WHEAT AND BARLEY PRODUCTION IN SOUTH CENTRAL NORTH DAKOTA USING PRECISION AGRICULTURE TECHNOLOGY

Real options theory is employed to measure the value of investing in organic wheat production using precision agriculture technology. Results reveal that an option to wait until market uncertainty is resolved is valuable. Information obtained via precision agriculture technology is also valuable to producers seeking organic certification.organic wheat production, real options theory, precision agriculture technology, Crop Production/Industries, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Climate and human forcing of Alpine river flow

River flow in Alpine environments is likely to be highly sensitive to climate change because of the effects of warming upon snow and ice, and hence the intra-annual distribution of river runoff. It is also likely to be influenced strongly by human impacts both upon hydrology (e.g. flow abstraction) and river regulation. This paper compares the river flow and sediment flux of two Alpine drainage basins over the last 5 to 7 decades, one that is largely unimpacted by human activities, one strongly impacted by flow abstraction for hydroelectricity. The analysis shows that both river flow and sediment transport capacity are strongly dependent upon the effects of temperature and precipitation availability upon snow accumulation. As the latter tends to increase annual maximum flows, and given the non-linear form of most sediment transport laws, current warming trends may lead to increased sedimentation in Alpine rivers. However, extension to a system impacted upon by flow abstraction reveals the dominant effect that human activity can have upon river sedimentation but also how human response to sediment management has co-evolved with climate forcing to make disentangling the two very difficult

The empirical basis for modelling glacial erosion rates

Glaciers are highly effective agents of erosion that have profoundly shaped Earth’s surface, but there is uncertainty about how glacial erosion should be parameterised in landscape evolution models. Glacial erosion rate is usually modelled as a function of glacier sliding velocity, but the empirical basis for this relationship is weak. In turn, climate is assumed to control sliding velocity and hence erosion, but this too lacks empirical scrutiny. Here, we present statistically robust relationships between erosion rates, sliding velocities, and climate from a global compilation of 38 glaciers. We show that sliding is positively and significantly correlated with erosion, and derive a relationship for use in erosion models. Our dataset further demonstrates that the most rapid erosion is achieved at temperate glaciers with high mean annual precipitation, which serve to promote rapid sliding. Precipitation has received little attention in glacial erosion studies, but our data illustrate its importance

Ice surface changes during recent glacial cycles along the Jutulstraumen and Penck Trough ice streams in western Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica

Reconstructing past ice-sheet surface changes is key to testing and improving ice-sheet models. Data constraining the past behaviour of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet are sparse, limiting our understanding of its response to past, present and future climate change. Here, we report the first cosmogenic multi-nuclide (10Be, 26Al, 36Cl) data from bedrock and erratics on nunataks along the Jutulstraumen and Penck Trough ice streams in western Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica. Spanning elevations between 741 and 2394 m above sea level, the samples have apparent exposure ages between 2 ka and 5 Ma. The highest-elevation bedrock sample indicates (near-) continuous minimum exposure since the Pliocene, with a low apparent erosion rate of 0.15 ± 0.03 m Ma−1, which is similar to results from eastern Dronning Maud Land. In contrast to studies in eastern Dronning Maud Land, however, our data show clear indications of a thicker-than-present ice sheet within the last glacial cycle, with a thinning of ∼35–120 m during the Holocene (∼2–11 ka). Difficulties in separating suitable amounts of quartz from the often quartz-poor rock-types in the area, and cosmogenic nuclides inherited from exposure prior to the last deglaciation, prevented robust thinning estimates from elevational profiles. Nevertheless, the results clearly demonstrate ice-surface fluctuations of several hundred meters between the current grounding line and the edge of the polar plateau for the last glacial cycle, a constraint that should be considered in future ice-sheet model simulations

‘At the desire of several persons of quality and lovers of Musick’:pervasive and persuasive advertising for public commercial concerts in London 1672–1749

The late seventeenth- and eighteenth centuries saw the development in London of the public commercial concert, which made early and increasing use of the newspaper as a method of advertising. This was both an innovation for promotion of commercial entertainments and a huge rise in pervasiveness over existing methods such as flyers and bills. A detailed analysis of the advertisement texts shows how they used various advertising techniques to convey a persuasive message about the concert and employed concepts such as novelty, quality, and appeals to class, status and self-identity. Moving beyond the argument that early advertisements could be persuasive, this paper identifies and interprets the techniques of persuasion musicians used and discusses how they foreground those found in more recent and current advertising practice

Environmental and Molecular Mutagenesis Meeting Report Assessing Human Germ-Cell Mutagenesis in the Post-Genome Era: A Celebration of the Legacy of William Lawson (Bill) Russell

ABSTRACT Although numerous germ-cell mutagens have been identified in animal model systems, to date, no human germ-cell mutagens have been confirmed. Because the genomic integrity of our germ cells is essential for the continuation of the human species, a resolution of this enduring conundrum is needed. To facilitate such a resolution, we organized a workshop at The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine on September [28][29][30] 2004. This interactive workshop brought together scientists from a wide range of disciplines to assess the applicability of emerging molecular methods for genomic analysis to the field of human germ-cell mutagenesis. Participants recommended that focused, coordinated human germ-cell mutation studies be conducted in relation to important societal exposures. Because cancer survivors represent a unique cohort with well-defined exposures, there was a consensus that studies should be designed to assess the mutational impact on children born to parents who had received certain types of mutagenic cancer chemotherapy prior to conceiving their children. Within this high-risk cohort, parents and children could be evaluated for inherited changes in (a) gene sequences and chromosomal structure, (b) repeat sequences and minisatellite regions, and (c) global gene expression and chromatin. Participants also recommended studies to examine trans-generational effects in humans involving mechanisms such as changes in imprinting and methylation patterns, expansion of nucleotide repeats, or induction of mitochondrial DNA mutations. Workshop participants advocated establishment of a bio-bank of human tissue samples that could be used to conduct a multiple-endpoint, comprehensive, and collaborative effort to detect exposure-induced heritable alterations in the human genome. Appropriate animal models of human germ-cell mutagenesis should be used in parallel with human studies to provide insights into the mechanisms of mammalian germ-cell mutagenesis. Finally, participants recommended that 4 scientific specialty groups be convened to address specific questions regarding the potential germ-cell mutagenicity of environmental, occupational, and lifestyle exposures. Strong support from relevant funding agencies and engagement of scientists outside the fields of genomics and germ-cell mutagenesis will be required to launch a full-scale assault on some of the most pressing and enduring questions in environmental mutagenesis: Do human germ-cell mutagens exist, what risk do they pose to future generations, and are some parents at higher risk than others for acquiring and transmitting germ-cell mutations?