Shocks and coffee : lessons from Nicaragua

Using household level panel data from Nicaragua, this paper explores the impact of the recent coffee crisis on rural households engaged in coffee production, and coffee labor work. Taking advantage of the panel structure of the data, a number of findings emerge: a) while overall growth between 1998, and 2001 was widespread in rural Nicaragua, coffee households saw large declines in various socioeconomic outcomes; b) among coffee households, it is small farm households that were affected the most, and not poor labor households as previously expected; c) even though coffee households used various risk management strategies to address the shock, it was pre shock, ex-ante strategies (like income diversification) that were the most effective in allowing coffee households insulate against the shock. By contrast, the coffee households that used ex-post coping instruments, did not manage to mitigate the adverse impact as well, with additional potential long run implications via extensive uses of harmful coping strategies (like increases in child labor); and, d) the coffee shock affected upward mobility, and downward poverty vulnerability of coffee households. Such findings seem to confirm the widespread impact of shocks on overall household behavior, and indicate the importance of incorporating risk management in the policy agenda of poverty reduction.Housing&Human Habitats,Regional Rural Development,Crops&Crop Management Systems,VN-Acb Mis -- IFC-00535908,Environmental Economics&Policies

\u3ci\u3eAmor puro\u3c/i\u3e: Pure Love

Written by Diana Mason, Brittany Rojas, Daisy Ochoa Translated by Mirela Butnar

The Fundamentals of Garbology

The Fundamentals of Garbology The goal of our project is to help people realize how much trash they are wasting, and we are doing this by analyzing each other\u27s garbage and using other scientific articles for evidence. An interesting fact of our research was the dissonance between what people thought garbage production (both their own and others) looked like, versus what was revealed. Our research led us to understand that people’s perceptions of garbage often misalign with the reality of garbage. In our research, we have learned about how analyzing people\u27s garbage can be misleading. For example, if you see a lot of healthy foods in a person\u27s garbage you can assume that they eat exceptionally clean or they are on a diet until you see a half-eaten slice of pizza. Furthermore, we have learned that it is difficult to determine the number of people producing trash. An example of this is from one group member is that it was determined that about five people lived in the household when there were nine. Among the best uses of garbology is that it helps people to realize how much garbage they are producing. Our focus in garbology is to help people realize how much of one food they are wasting, or how certain things that could easily be recycled are just being thrown away. One common themes found in our research is people tend to either have a lot of food in their garbage or little to none. One person in our group had ramen, plastic utensils, and thrown away food, while another group member had dog pills and materials used for doing nails. Our studies have proven that people have different lifestyles. However, the number of people living in their households reflected the amount of trash that was collected

Gathering Voices: Thomas Jefferson and Native America

This spring, the American philosophical society opened its third in a series of exhi- bitions on Thomas Jefferson. Gathering Voices: Thomas Jefferson and Native America explores Jefferson’s effort to collect native languages and its legacy at the APS.There are a num- ber of “firsts”in Gathering Voices. it marks the first time the Aps Museum has displayed one of the Library’s largest collections—the papers, photographs, and audio recordings from some 270 native American and indigenous cultures. it is also the first time the Museum invited two native advisors— Margaret Bruchac (Abenaki) and richard hill, sr. (Tuscarora)—to work with our museum team.Thanks to the newly founded Center for native American and indigenous research (CNAIR), the exhibition piloted a consultative process with native communities whose materials are featured in Gathering Voices. The show also includes some of the Museum’s most extensive multimedia features, including an animated map projection, two interactive touch-screen stations, and audio recordings. The resulting exhibition reflects the close partnerships among the Aps Museum and Library and native American communities

XMM-Newton observations of UW CrB -- detection of X-ray bursts and evidence for accretion disc evolution

UW CrB (MS1603+2600) is a peculiar short period X-ray binary that exhibits extraordinary optical behaviour. The optical light curve shape of the system changes drastically from night to night, without any changes in overall brightness. Here we report X-ray observations of UW CrB obtained with {\it XMM-Newton}. We find evidence for several X-ray bursts confirming a neutron star primary. This considerably strengthens the case that UW CrB is an Accretion Disc Corona (ADC) system located at a distance of at least 5--7 kpc, (3--5 kpc above the galactic plane). The X-ray and optical monitor (UV+optical) light curves show remarkable shape variation from one observing run to another, which we suggest are due to large scale variations in the accretion disc shape resulting from a warp which periodically obscures the optical and soft X-ray emission. This is also supported by the changes in phase-resolved X-ray spectra.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA

Prediction of local wind climatology from Met Office models: Virtual Met Mast techniques

The Met Office has developed the Virtual Met Mast™ (VMM) tool for assessing the feasibility of potential wind farm sites. It provides site-specific climatological wind information for both onshore and offshore locations. The VMM relies on existing data from past forecasts from regional-scale numerical weather prediction (NWP) models, to which corrections are applied to account for local site complexity. The techniques include corrections to account for the enhanced roughness lengths used in NWP models to represent drag due to sub-grid orography, and downscaling methods which predict local wind acceleration over small-scale terrain. The corrected NWP data are extended to cover long periods (decades) using a technique in which the data are related to alternative long-term datasets. For locations in the UK the VMM currently relies on operational mesoscale model forecast data at 4km horizontal resolution. Predictions have been verified against observations made at typical wind turbine hub heights at over 80 sites across the UK. In general the predictions compare well with the observations. The techniques provide an efficient method for screening potential wind resource sites. Examples of how the VMM techniques can be used to produce local wind maps are also presented

Emotional Eating and Diet-related Self-Efficacy, Motivation, and Norms in Adolescents

The objective of the current study was to examine the association between emotional eating and self-efficacy, motivation, and social norms for consumption of fruits and vegetables (F/V) and energy-dense, nutrient-poor (EDNP) foods and beverages, as well as interactions with body mass index-z score (BMI-z). Adolescents completed self-report measures of demographics, emotional eating, and dietary health behavior theory constructs. Emotional eating was associated with lower self-efficacy for consumption of F/V and for limiting EDNP foods/beverages; greater motivation for limiting of EDNP foods/beverages; lower social norms for consumption of F/V; and greater social norms for consumption of EDNP foods/beverages. There were no interactions with BMI-z. Evidence-based nutrition programs that leverage health behavior theories should be tailored to adolescents’ emotional eating

In ovo exposure to o,p -DDE affects sexual development but not sexual differentiation in Japanese medaka (Oryzias latipes).

Despite being banned in many countries, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and its metabolites dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (DDE) and dichlorodiphenyldichloroethane (DDD) continue to be found in fish tissues at concentrations of concern. Like o,p -DDT, o,p -DDE is estrogenic and is believed to exert its effects through binding to the estrogen receptor. The limited toxicologic data for o,p -DDE suggest that it decreases fecundity and fertility of fishes. We conducted an egg injection study using the d-rR strain of medaka and environmentally relevant concentrations of o,p -DDE to examine its effects on sexual differentiation and development. The gonads of exposed fish showed no evidence of sex reversal or intersex. However, other gonad abnormalities occurred in exposed individuals. Females exhibited few vitellogenic oocytes and increased atresia. Male testes appeared morphologically normal but were very small. Gonadosomatic index values for both sexes were lower for exposed fish. Our observations of abnormal female and very small male gonads after in ovo o,p -DDE exposure may be indicative of effects on early endocrine processes important for normal ovarian and testicular development

Diffusion tensor imaging correlates with cytopathology in a rat model of neonatal hydrocephalus

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is a non-invasive MRI technique that has been used to quantify CNS abnormalities in various pathologic conditions. This study was designed to quantify the anisotropic diffusion properties in the brain of neonatal rats with hydrocephalus (HCP) and to investigate association between DTI measurements and cytopathology.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>DTI data were acquired between postnatal day 7 (P7) and P12 in 12 rats with HCP induced at P2 and in 15 age-matched controls. Animals were euthanized at P11 or P22/P23 and brains were processed with immunohistochemistry for glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), ionized calcium-binding adaptor molecule (Iba-1), and luxol fast blue (LFB) to assess astrocytosis, microglial reactivity and degree of myelination, respectively.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Hydrocephalic rats were consistently found to have an abnormally low (at corrected <it>p</it>-level of <0.05) fractional anisotropy (FA) value and an abnormally high mean diffusivity (MD) value in the cerebral cortex (CX), the corpus callosum (CC), and the internal capsule (IC). Immunohistochemical analysis demonstrated trends of increasing astrocyte and microglial reactivity in HCP rats at P11 that reached statistical significance at P22/P23. A trend toward reduced myelination in the HCP rats was also found at P22/P23. Correlation analysis at P11 for the CC demonstrated statistically significant correlations (or trends) between the DTI measurement (the decreased FA and increased MD values) and the GFAP or Iba-1 rankings. The immunohistochemical rankings in the IC at P22/P23 were also significantly correlated or demonstrated a trend with both FA and MD values.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study demonstrates the feasibility of employing DTI on the brain in experimental hydrocephalus in neonatal rats and reveals impairments in multiple regions of interest in both grey and white matter. A strong correlation was found between the immunohistochemical results and the changes in anisotropic diffusion properties.</p