Potential Economic Impacts of the Managed Haying and Grazing Provision of CRP

According to the Executive Order 12866, a qualitative and quantitative assessment for any Federal mandate resulting in annual expenditures of $100 million or more is required. This study determines how many of the approximately 34.5 million acres of CRP land is brought back in economic use, how that use is allocated between grazing and haying, and the economic impact.CRP, land allocation, economic impact, Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

How can rural health be improved through community participation?

Executive summary Rural Australians generally experience poorer health than their city counterparts. Rural Australia is a vast geographical region, with significant diversity, where there is good health and prosperity, as well as disadvantage. The purpose of this issue brief is to provide evidence on how the health of rural Australians can be improved through community participation initiatives, which are currently being funded and delivered by health services and networks. Rural Australians need innovative health services that are tailored to the local context and meet increasing healthcare demands, without increases to expenditure. There are community participation approaches supported by research that can improve existing practice. Avoiding duplication, including the current work of Medicare Locals and Local Hospital Networks, is important for ensuring good outcomes from community participation initiatives. The following recommendations are made to improve practice: New ways to contract and pay for health services are needed, which use ideas developed with communities, within current budgets State and federal government competitive grants and tenders should prioritise proposals that demonstrate effective community participation approaches Community-based services, such as community health centres, Medicare Locals and Local Health Networks, have an important role to play in facilitating community participation, including: Building partnerships between existing services and leveraging existing participation strategies, rather than developing new services or standalone initiatives—to leverage available funds and maximise outcomes Employment of a jointly-appointed, paid community leadership position across existing community-based health services, to avoid duplication and overcome barriers of over-consultation and volunteer fatigue Formal and robust evaluation of initiatives is necessary to guide future policy and research A national innovative online knowledge sharing portal is required to share best practice in rural community participation, save time and money on ineffective approaches, and to support the rural health workforce

Potential Economic Impacts of the Managed Haying and Grazing Provision of the Conservation Reserve Program

A survey of 480 Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) fields from across 14 states in the Great Plains region was completed to estimate the economic impacts from a policy change in the managed haying and grazing provision of the CRP. The study was designed to determine whether the new grazing and haying provisions of CRP would dramatically impact the price of beef and state economies. The study examined the economic feasibility of the haying and grazing activity, given the reduction in rental payments, estimated the amount of beef and hay likely to be produced annually in each state under several haying and grazing scenarios and estimated the impact of these expanded activities on beef production. The economic impact of the changes in production for hay and beef on states' economies was measured. The results were evaluated to decide if additional analysis was needed for local markets. The results suggest that the policy changes represented by the various haying and grazing scenarios result in a small change, both in terms of current production levels and economy wide impacts. This analysis adequately reflects the magnitude of the changes likely to occur in the output of hay and beef from each of the haying and grazing scenarios at the state level. Because the scenarios considered only a one in three to one in ten year haying or grazing management scheme for the CRP acres, the results of this study cannot be extended to a continuous haying and grazing activity.Department of Agricultural Economic

VELO[city] : rethinking the multi-modal urban station

Thesis (M.Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2003.Includes bibliographical references (p. [88]-[93]).Train travel was once integral to the urban condition. Railway stations and rural depots were designed as machines for efficiency and it was within the station that one could escape the chaos of the city to become a part of the streamlined systematization of the industrial age. The terminal, it was thought, existed as an extension of the infrastructure of the railroad and as an integral part of the metropolitan corridor. As such, the architecture of the station re sided within the two dimensional network ascribed to the city and to the Western and Midwestern landscape. This thesis explores the amplification of a static rail station typology into a dynamic and multifaceted urban organism that is activated in its integration of multiple infrastructures operating at multiple speeds of travel-- from airplane to high-speed train to subway to bus to car to pedestrian. Its mediation of multiple notions of arrival and departure results in a public space highly charged with activity; it is a connector, a facilitator, a non-place. The station program includes access to three underground subway lines (one proposed), on-grade bus connections, a secure high-speed airport train with baggage and ticket check-in, a portion of the pedestrian walkway which snakes underground through Chicago's loop, and a connection to the elevated rail. The exterior poche of the station building houses theaters and restaurants, shops, bars, and a hotel. Within this urban program hunkers a secure zone- waiting rooms and restaurants, newspaper kiosks and conference rooms linked hermetically to the secure airport connector train and ultimately to O'Hare Airport's gates.by Amanda Dickson.M.Arch

In vitro Biofilm Formation in an 8-well Chamber Slide

The chronic nature of many diseases is attributed to the formation of bacterial biofilms which are recalcitrant to traditional antibiotic therapy. Biofilms are community-associated bacteria attached to a surface and encased in a matrix. The role of the extracellular matrix is multifaceted, including facilitating nutrient acquisition, and offers significant protection against environmental stresses (e.g. host immune responses). In an effort to acquire a better understanding as to how the bacteria within a biofilm respond to environmental stresses we have used a protocol wherein we visualize bacterial biofilms which have formed in an 8-well chamber slide. The biofilms were stained with the BacLight Live/Dead stain and examined using a confocal microscope to characterize the relative biofilm size, and structure under varying incubation conditions. Z-stack images were collected via confocal microscopy and analyzed by COMSTAT. This protocol can be used to help elucidate the mechanism and kinetics by which biofilms form, as well as identify components that are important to biofilm structure and stability

Maternal depressive symptoms and young people's higher education participation and choice of university: Evidence from a longitudinal cohort study

Background: Participation in higher education has significant and long-lasting consequences for people's socioeconomic trajectories. Maternal depression is linked to poorer educational achievement for children in school, but its impact on university attendance is unclear. // Methods: In an English longitudinal cohort study (N = 8952), we explore whether young people whose mothers experienced elevated depressive symptoms are less likely to attend university, and the role of potential mediators in the young person: educational achievement in school, depressive symptoms, and locus of control. We also examine whether maternal depressive symptoms influence young people's choice of university, and non-attendees' reasons for not participating in higher education. // Results: Young people whose mothers experienced more recurrent depressive symptoms were less likely to attend university (OR = 0.88, CI = 0.82,0.94, p < 0.001) per occasion of elevated maternal depressive symptoms) after adjusting for confounders. Mediation analysis indicated this was largely explained by educational achievement in school (e.g., 82.7 % mediated by age 16 achievement) and locus of control at 16. There was mixed evidence for an impact on choice of university. For participants who did not study at university, maternal depressive symptoms were linked to stating as a reason having had other priorities to do with family or children (OR: 1.17, CI = 1.02,1.35). // Limitations: Lack of data on the other parent's depression, loss to follow-up, possibly selective non-response. // Conclusions: Young people whose mothers experience elevated depressive symptoms on multiple occasions are less likely to participate in higher education; educational achievement in secondary school, but not the young people's own depressive symptoms, substantially mediated the effect

Normal cognition in transgenic BRI2-Aβ mice

BACKGROUND: Recent research in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) field has been focused on the potential role of the amyloid-β protein that is derived from the transmembrane amyloid precursor protein (APP) in directly mediating cognitive impairment in AD. Transgenic mouse models overexpressing APP develop robust AD-like amyloid pathology in the brain and show various levels of cognitive decline. In the present study, we examined the cognition of the BRI2-Aβ transgenic mouse model in which secreted extracellular Aβ1-40, Aβ1-42 or both Aβ1-40/Aβ1-42 peptides are generated from the BRI-Aβ fusion proteins encoded by the transgenes. BRI2-Aβ mice produce high levels of Aβ peptides and BRI2-Aβ1-42 mice develop amyloid pathology that is similar to the pathology observed in mutant human APP transgenic models. RESULTS: Using established behavioral tests that reveal deficits in APP transgenic models, BRI2-Aβ1-42 mice showed completely intact cognitive performance at ages both pre and post amyloid plaque formation. BRI2-Aβ mice producing Aβ1-40 or both peptides were also cognitively intact. CONCLUSIONS: These data indicate that high levels of Aβ1-40 or Aβ1-42, or both produced in the absence of APP overexpression do not reproduce memory deficits observed in APP transgenic mouse models. This outcome is supportive of recent data suggesting that APP processing derivatives or the overexpression of full length APP may contribute to cognitive decline in APP transgenic mouse models. Alternatively, Aβ aggregates may impact cognition by a mechanism that is not fully recapitulated in these BRI2-Aβ mouse models

Common health conditions in childhood and adolescence, school absence, and educational attainment: Mendelian randomization study

Good health is positively related to children’s educational outcomes, but relationships may not be causal. Demonstrating a causal influence would strongly support childhood and adolescent health as important for education policy. We applied genetic causal inference methods to assess the causal relationship of common health conditions at age 10 (primary/elementary school) and 13 (mid-secondary/mid-high school) with educational attainment at 16 and school absence at 14–16. Participants were 6113 children from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). Exposures were symptoms of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), depression, asthma, migraines and BMI. Genetic liability for these conditions and BMI was indexed by polygenic scores. In non-genetic, multivariate-adjusted models, all health conditions except asthma and migraines were associated with poorer attainment and greater school absence. School absence substantially mediated effects of BMI (39.9% for BMI at 13) and migraines (72.0% at 10), on attainment with more modest mediation for emotional and neurodevelopmental conditions. In genetic models, a unit increase in standardized BMI at 10 predicted a 0.19 S.D. decrease (95% CI: 0.11, 0.28) in attainment at 16, equivalent to around a 1/3 grade lower in all subjects, and 8.7% more school absence (95% CI:1.8%,16.1%). Associations were similar at 13. Genetic liability for ADHD predicted lower attainment but not more absence. Triangulation across multiple approaches supports a causal, negative influence on educational outcomes of BMI and ADHD, but not of ASD, depression, asthma or migraine. Higher BMI in childhood and adolescence may causally impair educational outcomes