Subsidies and agricultural productivity in the EU

This paper investigates the relationship between EU agricultural subsidies and agricultural labor productivity growth by estimating a conditional convergence growth model. We use more representative subsidy indicators and a wider coverage (panel data from 213 EU regions over the period 2004\u20132014) than have been used before. We find that, on average, EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) subsidies increase agricultural labor productivity growth, but this aggregate effect hides important heterogeneity of effects of different types of subsidies. The positive effect on productivity comes from decoupled subsidies, that is, Pillar I decoupled payments and some Pillar II payments. Coupled Pillar I subsidies have the opposite effect: they slow down productivity growth

Coordination Dependence of Hyperfine Fields of 5sp Impurities on Ni Surfaces

We present first-principles calculations of the magnetic hyperfine fields H of 5sp impurities on the (001), (111), and (110) surfaces of Ni. We examine the dependence of H on the coordination number by placing the impurity in the surfaces, on top of them at the adatom positions, and in the bulk. We find a strong coordination dependence of H, different and characteristic for each impurity. The behavior is explained in terms of the on-site s-p hybridization as the symmetry is reduced at the surface. Our results are in agreement with recent experimental findings.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Decreased soluble guanylate cyclase contributes to cardiac dysfunction induced by chronic doxorubicin treatment in mice

Aims: The use of doxorubicin, a potent chemotherapeutic agent, is limited by cardiotoxicity. We tested the hypothesis that decreased soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC) enzyme activity contributes to the development of doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity. Results: Doxorubicin administration (20 mg/kg, intraperitoneally [IP]) reduced cardiac sGC activity in wild-type (WT) mice. To investigate whether decreased sGC activity contributes to doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity, we studied mice with cardiomyocyte-specific deficiency of the sGC alpha 1-subunit (mice with cardiomyocyte-specific deletion of exon 6 of the sGC alpha 1 allele [sGC alpha 1(-/-CM)]). After 12 weeks of doxorubicin administration (2 mg/kg/week IP), left ventricular (LV) systolic dysfunction was greater in sGC alpha 1(-/-CM) than WT mice. To further assess whether reduced sGC activity plays a pathogenic role in doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity, we studied a mouse model in which decreased cardiac sGC activity was induced by cardiomyocyte-specific expression of a dominant negative sGC alpha 1 mutant (DNsGC alpha 1) upon doxycycline removal (Tet-off). After 8 weeks of doxorubicin administration, DNsGC alpha 1(tg/+), but not WT, mice displayed LV systolic dysfunction and dilatation. The difference in cardiac function and remodeling between DNsGC alpha 1(tg/+) and WT mice was even more pronounced after 12 weeks of treatment. Further impairment of cardiac function was attenuated when DNsGC alpha 1 gene expression was inhibited (beginning at 8 weeks of doxorubicin treatment) by administering doxycycline. Furthermore, doxorubicin-associated reactive oxygen species generation was higher in sGC alpha 1-deficient than WT hearts. Innovation and Conclusion: These data demonstrate that a reduction in cardiac sGC activity worsens doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity in mice and identify sGC as a potential therapeutic target. Various pharmacological sGC agonists are in clinical development or use and may represent a promising approach to limit doxorubicin-associated cardiotoxicity

Production potential in the "bread baskets" of Eastern Europe and Central Asia

© 2017 Elsevier B.V.Eastern Europe and Central Asia is a major food producer and exporter. Almost a quarter of world wheat exports come from the region, and especially from Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine (RUK). The potential of these countries to become a "bread basket" for the world has been emphasized because of already large production and exports and their "immense land and yield reserves", referring to the abandonment of more than 50 million hectares of cropland and the large drop in crop productivity in the 1990s. However, there is considerable uncertainty about the potential of this land for food production. In this paper we review interdisciplinary literature and empirical evidence, predictions of production potential and impacts of climate change; and discuss the potential of the region to become a reliable breadbasket of the world. From a biophysical (crop growth) perspective, under different scenarios of increased yields, land use and climate change effects, RUK could produce an additional 40-110 million tons of wheat compared to current production, which would be a substantial additional production. However economic incentives, in particular the evolution of food prices and competition from other crops, are likely to significantly constrain these potentials. In addition, the introduction of export restrictions during recent times of high prices raised concerns on the reliability of RUK as exporters

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

Report on the IDRC 2012 Canadian Learning Forum : Virtual Platforms, Knowledge Management and International Development, February 7-8, 2012, Winnipeg

French version available in IDRC Digital Library: Rapport sur le Forum canadien d'apprentissage du CRDI 2012 : plateformes virtuelles, gestion des connaissances et développement international, Winnipeg, les 7 et 8 février 2012Over the past five years, the Canadian Partnerships (CP) program at IDRC has supported a number of Canadian academic, research and civil society organizations to use online virtual platforms (VPs) in their research, policy development, project collaboration, capacity building and dissemination activities. VPs are online tools and systems that are designed to facilitate knowledge sharing, management and collaboration amongst geographically dispersed actors. International development organizations increasingly see these VPs as a means to connecting far-flung staff, partners, participants and supporters to document, compile and make sense of their collective learning to enhance real-world, “off-line results”. Moreover, for organizations that work globally, VPs also offer the advantage of reducing the costs, inconvenience and pollution associated with international travel; and as more and more people in the global South are connecting to the Internet via mobile phones, the potential to reach new constituencies and to support collaboration between local, national and international actors is exciting, but also potentially overwhelming for staff charged with starting up and facilitating the use of these platforms..

Production potential in the “bread baskets” of Eastern Europe and Central Asia

© 2017 Elsevier B.V. Eastern Europe and Central Asia is a major food producer and exporter. Almost a quarter of world wheat exports come from the region, and especially from Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine (RUK). The potential of these countries to become a “bread basket” for the world has been emphasized because of already large production and exports and their “immense land and yield reserves”, referring to the abandonment of more than 50 million hectares of cropland and the large drop in crop productivity in the 1990s. However, there is considerable uncertainty about the potential of this land for food production. In this paper we review interdisciplinary literature and empirical evidence, predictions of production potential and impacts of climate change; and discuss the potential of the region to become a reliable breadbasket of the world. From a biophysical (crop growth) perspective, under different scenarios of increased yields, land use and climate change effects, RUK could produce an additional 40–110 million tons of wheat compared to current production, which would be a substantial additional production. However economic incentives, in particular the evolution of food prices and competition from other crops, are likely to significantly constrain these potentials. In addition, the introduction of export restrictions during recent times of high prices raised concerns on the reliability of RUK as exporters

Vasodilator reactive oxygen species ameliorate perturbed myocardial oxygen delivery in exercising swine with multiple comorbidities

Multiple common cardiovascular comorbidities produce coronary microvascular dysfunction. We previously observed in swine that a combination of diabetes mellitus (DM), high fat diet (HFD) and chronic kidney disease (CKD) induced systemic inflammation, increased oxidative stress and produced coronary endothelial dysfunction, altering control of coronary microvascular tone via loss of NO bioavailability, which was associated with an increase in circulating endothelin (ET). In the present study, we tested the hypotheses that (1) ROS scavenging and (2) ETA+B-receptor blockade improve myocardial oxygen delivery in the same female swine model. Healthy female swine on normal pig chow served as controls (Normal). Five months after induction of DM (streptozotocin, 3 × 50 mg kg−1 i.v.), hypercholesterolemia (HFD) and CKD (renal embolization), swine were chronically instrumented and studied at rest and during exercise. Sustained hyperglycemia, hypercholesterolemia and renal dysfunction were accompanied by systemic inflammation and oxidative stress. In vivo ROS scavenging (TEMPOL + MPG) reduced myocardial oxygen delivery in DM + HFD + CKD swine, suggestive of a vasodilator influence of endogenous ROS, while it had no effect in Normal swine. In vitro wire myography revealed a vasodilator role for hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in isolated small coronary artery segments from DM + HFD + CKD, but not Normal swine. Increased catalase activity and ceramide production in left ventricular myocardial tissue of DM + HFD + CKD swine further suggest that increased H2O2 acts as vasodilator ROS in the coronary microvasculature. Despite elevated ET-1 plasma levels in DM + HFD + CKD swine, ETA+B blockade did not affect myocardial oxygen delivery in Normal or DM + HFD + CKD swine. In conclusion, loss of NO bioavailability due to 5 months exposure to multiple comorbidities is partially compensated by increased H2O2-mediated coronary vasodilation.</p

Testing Multiple Coordination Constraints with a Novel Bimanual Visuomotor Task

The acquisition of a new bimanual skill depends on several motor coordination constraints. To date, coordination constraints have often been tested relatively independently of one another, particularly with respect to isofrequency and multifrequency rhythms. Here, we used a new paradigm to test the interaction of multiple coordination constraints. Coordination constraints that were tested included temporal complexity, directionality, muscle grouping, and hand dominance. Twenty-two healthy young adults performed a bimanual dial rotation task that required left and right hand coordination to track a moving target on a computer monitor. Two groups were compared, either with or without four days of practice with augmented visual feedback. Four directional patterns were tested such that both hands moved either rightward (clockwise), leftward (counterclockwise), inward or outward relative to each other. Seven frequency ratios (3∶1, 2∶1, 3∶2, 1∶1, 2∶3. 1∶2, 1∶3) between the left and right hand were introduced. As expected, isofrequency patterns (1∶1) were performed more successfully than multifrequency patterns (non 1∶1). In addition, performance was more accurate when participants were required to move faster with the dominant right hand (1∶3, 1∶2 and 2∶3) than with the non-dominant left hand (3∶1, 2∶1, 3∶2). Interestingly, performance deteriorated as the relative angular velocity between the two hands increased, regardless of whether the required frequency ratio was an integer or non-integer. This contrasted with previous finger tapping research where the integer ratios generally led to less error than the non-integer ratios. We suggest that this is due to the different movement topologies that are required of each paradigm. Overall, we found that this visuomotor task was useful for testing the interaction of multiple coordination constraints as well as the release from these constraints with practice in the presence of augmented visual feedback