Comparing land reform and land markets in colombia: impacts on equity and efficiency

Based on a large survey to compare the effectiveness of land markets and land reform in Colombia, the authors find that rental and sales markets were more effective in transferring land to poor but productive producers than was administrative land reform. The fact that land transactions were all of a short-term nature and that little land was transferred from very large to small land owners or the landless suggests that there may be scope for policies both to improve the functioning of land markets and to facilitate greater land access by the most disadvantaged. Analysis of the factors associated with success in a sample of land transfers from large to small producers helps to identify key elements for policies in both respects.Banks&Banking Reform,Environmental Economics&Policies,Municipal Housing and Land,Land Use and Policies,Agribusiness&Markets,Environmental Economics&Policies,Banks&Banking Reform,Rural Land Policies for Poverty Reduction,Land Use and Policies,Agribusiness&Markets

IMPACT OF ELECTRIC POWER SECTOR REFORMS ON FARM INCOMES IN INDIA

The supply of electricity to the agricultural sector (largely for pumping groundwater) is heavily subsidized in India. Using data from a household survey in the state of Haryana, a profit function estimated to analyze the impact of increase in tariffs accompanied by improvement in conditions of supply on farm incomes.Agricultural Finance, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

After the Revolution: Terror, Literature, and the Nation in Modern France

This dissertation provides a framework in which to consider how collective memory, national identity, and literature insist on a political vision of the nation. The works in question are examples of the enduring impact of pivotal events on the French literary tradition. This study takes a diachronic approach to studying literature written during moments of crisis in France. It examines works dealing with the Revolutionary Terror (1793-1794), the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871), and World War II's drôle de guerre (1940). The writers chosen for this dissertation all use the rhetoric of literature as a way to think through the crisis and imagine ways to respond to it. In particular, this study explores how fear, power, and indoctrination are used to represent ideals of French national identity and the chaos surrounding earth-shattering events. Theories of historical representation, nationalism, and event fidelity provide the framework to reveal underlying political perspectives in the works studied.The chapters of this dissertation are organized chronologically, beginning with the Terror. Within the first chapter, the focus is on the Marquis de Sade's La Philosophie dans le boudoir, particularly its fabricated political pamphlet, "Français, encore un effort si vous voulez être républicains." Sade's work is juxtaposed with that of a virtually unknown émigré writer, Louis de Bruno's Lioncel, ou l'Émigré, nouvelle historique. The next event studied is the Franco-Prussian War, and the resulting Paris Commune. Victor Hugo's Quatrevingt-Treize and Jules Vern'es Le Chemin de France are both set during the Revolutionary War, but address events taking place in nineteenth-century France. The last chapter deals with the initial period of defeat and occupation in World War II. Both Jean-Paul Sartre's Nativity play, Bariona ou le fils du tonnerre and Marc Bloch's wartime testimonial L'Étrange défaite encourage Frenchmen to continue the fight against foreign aggressors.The authors in question attempted to give the nation cultural roots, or shared lieux de mémoire, in the aftermath of traumatic events. This study shows how writers use texts to mediate chronological and ideological distance between events and to recreate what no longer exists, in hopes of defining a new way forward for the nation

A Rapid Method For Detecting Bacteria In Drinking Water

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/88116/1/j.1745-4581.1999.tb00382.x.pd

Mammalian retroelements

The eukaryotic genome has undergone a series of epidemics of amplification of mobile elements that have resulted in most eukaryotic genomes containing much more of this \u27junk\u27 DNA than actual coding DNA. The majority of these elements utilize an RNA intermediate and are termed retroelements. Most of these retroelements appear to amplify in evolutionary waves that insert in the genome and then gradually diverge. In humans, almost half of the genome is recognizably derived from retroelements, with the two elements that are currently actively amplifying, L1 and Alu, making up about 25% of the genome and contributing extensively to disease. The mechanisms of this amplification process are beginning to be understood, although there are still more questions than answers. Insertion of new retroelements may directly damage the genome, and the presence of multiple copies of these elements throughout the genome has longer-term influences on recombination events in the genome and more subtle influences on gene expression

The 30-kW ammonia arcjet technology

The technical results are summarized of a 30 kW class ammonia propellant arcjet technology program. Evaluation of previous arcjet thruster performance, including materials analysis of used thruster components, led to the design of an arcjet with improved performance and thermal characteristics. Tests of the new engine demonstrated that engine performance is relatively insensitive to cathode tip geometry. Other data suggested a maximum sustainable arc length for a given thruster configuration, beyond which the arc may reconfigure in a destructive manner. A flow controller calibration error was identified. This error caused previously reported values of specific impulse and thrust efficiency to be 20 percent higher than the real values. Corrected arcjet performance data are given. Duration tests of 413 and 252 hours, and several tests 100 hours in duration, were performed. The cathode tip erosion rate increased with increasing arc current. Elimination of power source ripple did not affect cathode tip whisker growth. Results of arcjet modeling, diagnostic development and mission analyses are also discussed. The 30 kW ammonia arcjet may now be considered ready for development for a flight demonstration, but widespread application of 30 kW class arcjet will require improved efficiency and lifetime

LINE-1 and Alu retrotransposition exhibit clonal variation

BACKGROUND: The non-long terminal repeat (non-LTR) retrotransposons, long interspersed element-1 (LINE-1) and Alu are currently active retroelements in humans. We, and others, have observed that different populations of HeLa cells from different laboratories support retrotransposition of LINE-1 and Alu to varying degrees. We therefore tested whether individual cell clones of HeLa and HCT116 cell lines supported different levels of LINE-1 and Alu retrotransposition, and whether these variations were stable upon re-cloning. FINDINGS: Standard retrotransposition tissue culture assays were used to measure a cell’s ability to support LINE-1 and Alu retrotransposition in clonal HeLa and HCT116 cell lines. We observed that both LINE-1 and Alu retrotransposition exhibited clonal variation in HeLa cells, with certain HeLa cell clones supporting high levels of LINE-1 and Alu retrotransposition and other cell clones being essentially retrotransposition-dead. This clonal variation was similarly observed in HCT116 cells, although possibly not to the same extent. These patterns of clonal variation are relatively consistent upon re-cloning. CONCLUSIONS: Observations of the variability of LINE-1 and Alu retrotransposition in different populations of the same cell line are supported by our results that indicate in some cell types, individual cell clones can have dramatically differing capacity for retrotransposition. The mixed populations of cells commonly used in laboratories have often been passaged for many generations and accumulated significant genetic and epigenetic diversity. Our results suggest that the clonal variability observed by our cloning experiments may lead to a homogenization of retrotransposition capacity, with the resulting mixed population of cells being composed of individual variants having either increased or decreased retrotransposition potential compared to the starting population