Nudging farmers to use fertilizer : theory and experimental evidence from Kenya

June 26, 200

Evaluating the impact of the Alcohol Act on off-trade alcohol sales: a natural experiment in Scotland

<b>Background and aims</b> A ban on multi-buy discounts of off-trade alcohol was introduced as part of the Alcohol Act in Scotland in October 2011. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of this legislation on alcohol sales, which provide the best indicator of population consumption.<p></p> <b>Design Setting and Participants</b> Interrupted time-series regression was used to assess the impact of the Alcohol Act on alcohol sales among off-trade retailers in Scotland. Models accounted for underlying seasonal and secular trends and were adjusted for disposable income, alcohol prices and substitution effects. Data for off-trade retailers in England and Wales combined (EW) provided a control group.<p></p> <b>Measurements</b> Weekly data on the volume of pure alcohol sold by off-trade retailers in Scotland and EW between January 2009 and September 2012.<p></p> <b>Findings</b> The introduction of the legislation was associated with a 2.6% (95% CI -5.3 to 0.2%, P = 0.07) decrease in off-trade alcohol sales in Scotland, but not in EW (-0.5%, -4.6 to 3.9%, P = 0.83). A statistically significant reduction was observed in Scotland when EW sales were adjusted for in the analysis (-1.7%, -3.1 to -0.3%, P = 0.02). The decline in Scotland was driven by reduced off-trade sales of wine (-4.0%, -5.4 to -2.6%, P < 0.001) and pre-mixed beverages (-8.5%, -12.7 to -4.1%, P < 0.001). There were no associated changes in other drink types in Scotland, or in sales of any drink type in EW.<p></p> <b>Conclusions</b> The introduction of the Alcohol Act in Scotland in 2011 was associated with a decrease in total off-trade alcohol sales in Scotland, largely driven by reduced off-trade wine sales

Caltech Faint Galaxy Redshift Survey X: A Redshift Survey in the Region of the Hubble Deep Field North

A redshift survey has been carried out in the region of the Hubble Deep Field North using the Low Resolution Imaging Spectrograph at the Keck Observatory. The resulting redshift catalog, which contains 671 entries, is a compendium of our own data together with published LRIS/Keck data. It is more than 92% complete for objects, irrespective of morphology, to $R = 24$ mag in the HDF itself and to $R = 23$ mag in the Flanking Fields within a diameter of 8 arcmin centered on the HDF, an unusually high completion for a magnitude limited survey performed with a large telescope. A median redshift $z = 1.0$ is reached at $R \sim 23.8$. Strong peaks in the redshift distribution, which arise when a group or poor cluster of galaxies intersect the area surveyed, can be identified to $z \sim 1.2$ in this dataset. More than 68% of the galaxies are members of these redshift peaks. In a few cases, closely spaced peaks in $z$ can be resolved into separate groups of galaxies that can be distinguished in both velocity and location on the sky. The radial separation of these peaks in the pencil-beam survey is consistent with a characteristic length scale for the their separation of $\approx$70 Mpc in our adopted cosmology ($h = 0.6, \Omega_M = 0.3$, $\Lambda = 0$). Strong galaxy clustering is in evidence at all epochs back to $z \le 1.1$. (abstract abridged)Comment: Accepted to the ApJ. This version contains all the figures and tables. 2 minor typos in table 2b correcte

Cloud animation

Clouds are animate forms, shifting and evanescent, mutable and always in movement. They have also long been a subject of imagery, especially painting, because paint, most notably watercolour, as John Constable knew, seeped into thick drawing papers much as a cloud seeped itself through the sky. The drama of clouds in the 20th century was seized by film and it is striking to note that many Hollywood Studio logos use clouds. Clouds from Constable to the Hollywood logos are Romantic clouds. They drift and float, produce ambience and mood, along with weather. But the cloud appears in the digital age too, in more ways than one. Clouds have been constituted digitally by commercial animation studios and used as main characters in cartoons; they are available in commercial applications, such as architecture and landscaping packages; they have been made and represented by art animators. This body of work, kitsch and dumb as some of it is, is treated in this article as emblematic of an age in which the digital cloud looms as a new substance. The cloud in the digital age is a source of form, like a 3D printer, a source of any imaginable form. As such it comes to be less a metaphor of something else and more a generator of a metaphor that is itself. Now we live alongside – and even inside - a huge cloud metaphor that is The Cloud. In what ways do the clouds in the sky speak across to the platform and matter that is called The Cloud? What is at work in the digitalising of clouds in animation, and the production of animation through the technologies of the Cloud? Are we witnessing the creation of a synthetic heaven into which all production has been relocated and the digital clouds make all the moves? Keywords Cloud, day-dreaming, dust, digital, metaphor, Romanticis

Assessment of metabolic phenotypic variability in children's urine using 1H NMR spectroscopy

The application of metabolic phenotyping in clinical and epidemiological studies is limited by a poor understanding of inter-individual, intra-individual and temporal variability in metabolic phenotypes. Using 1H NMR spectroscopy we characterised short-term variability in urinary metabolites measured from 20 children aged 8-9 years old. Daily spot morning, night-time and pooled (50:50 morning and night-time) urine samples across six days (18 samples per child) were analysed, and 44 metabolites quantified. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) and mixed effect models were applied to assess the reproducibility and biological variance of metabolic phenotypes. Excellent analytical reproducibility and precision was demonstrated for the 1H NMR spectroscopic platform (median CV 7.2%). Pooled samples captured the best inter-individual variability with an ICC of 0.40 (median). Trimethylamine, N-acetyl neuraminic acid, 3-hydroxyisobutyrate, 3-hydroxybutyrate/3-aminoisobutyrate, tyrosine, valine and 3-hydroxyisovalerate exhibited the highest stability with over 50% of variance specific to the child. The pooled sample was shown to capture the most inter-individual variance in the metabolic phenotype, which is of importance for molecular epidemiology study design. A substantial proportion of the variation in the urinary metabolome of children is specific to the individual, underlining the potential of such data to inform clinical and exposome studies conducted early in life

In vitro clonal multiplication of Cardiospermum halicacabum L.

A simple and efficient protocol for in vitro multiplication of mature plants of Cardiospermum halicacabum using nodal and shoot segments has been successfully developed. The stem of C. halicacabum being soft and delicate is very sensitive to physical handling and sterilization. In case of C. halicacabum extra care must be taken while selecting the explant and surface sterilizing it. Three to four shoots were initiated per auxiliary meristems on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with 2.0 mgl/1 BAP and 0.5mgl/1 IAA within two weeks, while less numbers of shoots produced on MS medium augmented with Kinetin (KIN). Repeated transfer of the initial explants for up to five passages on MS medium with 0.5 mgl/1 BAP and KIN + 0.5 mgl/1 IAA yielded maximum numbers of shoots. Healthy and elongated shoots were rooted on 1/2 MS medium + 2.0 mgl/1 Indole-3 butyric acid (IBA). The plantlets thus obtained were successfully hardened in green house and transferred to the field

Nudging Farmers to Use Fertilizer: Theory and Experimental Evidence from Kenya

While many developing-country policymakers see heavy fertilizer subsidies as critical to raising agricultural productivity, most economists see them as distortionary, regressive, environmentally unsound, and argue that they result in politicized, inefficient distribution of fertilizer supply. We model farmers as facing small fixed costs of purchasing fertilizer, and assume some are stochastically present-biased and not fully sophisticated about this bias. Even when relatively patient, such farmers may procrastinate, postponing fertilizer purchases until later periods, when they may be too impatient to purchase fertilizer. Consistent with the model, many farmers in Western Kenya fail to take advantage of apparently profitable fertilizer investments, but they do invest in response to small, time-limited discounts on the cost of acquiring fertilizer (free delivery) just after harvest. Later discounts have a smaller impact, and when given a choice of price schedules, many farmers choose schedules that induce advance purchase. Calibration suggests such small, time-limited discounts yield higher welfare than either laissez faire or heavy subsidies by helping present-biased farmers commit to fertilizer use without inducing those with standard preferences to substantially overuse fertilizer.

A Critical Analysis of Qaso’s Supervisory Practices on Teacher Effectiveness in Gatundu District of Kiambu County

The Directorate of Quality Assurance and Standards is charged with the responsibility of ensuring quality education which entails monitoring of curriculum implementation in schools. The members of staff of the directorate are expected to visit schools regularly, conduct seminars and in-service courses for teachers among other activities.The researchers’ aim was to conduct a critique review of Quality Assurance and Standards Officers (QASO’s) supervisory practices on teachers’ effectiveness. It was noted that the funds allocated to the Directorate of Quality Assurance and Standards was not enough. Only a few schools were sampled for supervision especially due to poor academic performance or students’ unrests. QASOs lacked the necessary knowledge and skills among other shortcomings. The researchers concluded that Directorate of QASO needed to be strengthened to improve teachers’ effectiveness leading to improvement in students’ academic performance. This could be done through allocation of more funds, training among others. Keywords:Directorate of Quality Assurance and Standards (DQAS), Quality Assurance and Standards Officers (QASOs), and teachers’ effectiveness.