Factors affecting the selection of business arrangements by hog producers in the United States

The structure of the U.S. hog industry is changing rapidly. U.S. hog farms have become smaller in number, larger in size and more specialized. This study examines the factors that influence the hog producer\u27s choice among business arrangements offered in the U.S. hog industry. A national survey was mailed to 4,986 hog producers to determine these factors. The survey consisted of questions covering topics such as: production characteristics, autonomy, transaction costs, risk, social relationships, and demographics. A response rate of 21% was received from the mailed surveys. Four alternative business arrangements were used: independent production, cooperative farming, flat-fee contract, and incentive payment contract. The multinomial logit and binomial logit models were employed to determine factors influencing producers\u27 choice of business arrangement. Results indicate that independent producers are, in general, more likely to be breeding sow operators, diversified, corn producers, located in the same counties as flat-fee contract producers, frequent checkers of market prices, have higher debt, value autonomy and relationships with feed merchants more, and be relatively more educated than incentive payment contract producers. Cooperative producers are also more likely to be breeding sow operators, diversified, corn producers, and located in the same counties as flat-fee contractees. They are also likely to have accumulated higher assets, have higher debt and greater farm assets, be risk averse, be concerned about autonomy and relationships with feed merchants, and be relatively more educated than incentive payment contract producers. Flat-fee contract producers are more likely to be finishers located in counties with independent and cooperative producers, work more hours off-farm, and be owners of greater farm assets. They are less likely to value autonomy and more likely to value relationships with neighboring farmers. Finally, incentive payment contract producers are generally larger, lower debt finisher or breeding sow operators who work more hours off-farm, value autonomy less and relationships with lenders more than other business arrangements. They are likely to be located in counties with cooperative producers

FCNN-based axon segmentation for convection-enhanced delivery optimization

Purpose: Glioblastoma multiforme treatment is a challenging task in clinical oncology. Convection- enhanced delivery (CED) is showing encouraging but still suboptimal results due to drug leakages. Numerical models can predict drug distribution within the brain, but require retrieving brain physical properties, such as the axon diameter distribution (ADD), through axon architecture analysis. The goal of this work was to provide an automatic, accurate and fast method for axon segmentation in electronic microscopy images based on fully convolutional neural network (FCNN) as to allow automatic ADD computation. Methods: The segmentation was performed using a residual FCNN inspired by U-Net and Resnet. The FCNN training was performed exploiting mini-batch gradient descent and the Adam optimizer. The Dice coefficient was chosen as loss function. Results: The proposed segmentation method achieved results comparable with already existing methods for axon segmentation in terms of Information Theoretic Scoring (0.98 %) with a faster training (5 h on the deployed GPU) and without requiring heavy post-processing (testing time was 0.2 s with a non-optimized code). The ADDs computed from the segmented and ground-truth images were statistically equivalent. Conclusions: The algorithm proposed in this work allowed fast and accurate axon segmentation and ADD computation, showing promising performance for brain microstructure analysis for CED delivery optimization

Vino e Ambiente: sostenibilità e qualità primaria nel sottobacino Iudeo-Bucari (TP).

In questa raccolta di scritti, vengono riportati i risultati dell’attività di ricerca realizzata con la collaborazione della cantina UVAM e dell’Istituto Regionale Vino e Olio di Sicili

Both IL-1β and TNF-α Regulate NGAL Expression in Polymorphonuclear Granulocytes of Chronic Hemodialysis Patients

Background. NGAL is involved in modulation of the inflammatory response and is found in the sera of uremic patients. We investigated whether hemodiafiltration (HDF) could influence the ability of polymorphonuclear granulocytes (PMGs) to release NGAL. The involvement of interleukin- (IL-)1β and tumor necrosis factor- (TNF-)α on NGAL release was evaluated. Methods. We studied end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients at the start of dialysis (Pre-HDF) and at the end of treatment (Post-HDF) and 18 healthy subjects (HSs). Peripheral venous blood was taken from HDF patients at the start of dialysis and at the end of treatment. Results. PMGs obtained from ESRD patients were hyporesponsive to LPS treatment, with respect to PMG from HS. IL-1β and TNF-α produced by PMG from post-HDF patients were higher than those obtained by PMG from pre-HDF. Neutralization of IL-1β, but not of TNF-α, determined a clear-cut production of NGAL in PMG from healthy donors. On the contrary, specific induction of NGAL in PMG from uremic patients was dependent on the presence in supernatants of IL-1β and TNF-α. Conclusion. Our data demonstrate that in PMG from healthy subjects, NGAL production was supported solely by IL-1β, whereas in PMG from HDF patients, NGAL production was supported by IL-1β, TNF-α

La risposta produttiva di alcuni vitigni nel sottobacino Iudeo - Bucari (TP).

Gli Autori dopo aver descritto le caratteristiche ambientali del sottobacino Iudeo Bucari e l’attività agricola prettamente legata alla vitivinicoltura, soffermano l’attenzione sulle potenzialità produttiva di questo territorio espressa da diversi vitigni. L'obiettivo è quello di trasferire su di una basecartografica il diverso comportamento produttivo dei vitigni più rappresentati nel sottobacino Iudeo - Bucari, con il fine ultimo di fornire un valido strumento agli agronomi liberi professionisti ed ai tecnici delle cantine al fine di indirizzare l’attività produttiva dei viticoltori e migliorare la gestione dei suoli del territorio

Formation of β-Silicon Nitride Crystals from (Si,Al,Mg,Y)(O,N) Liquid: I, Phase, Composition, and Shape Evolutions

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/65704/1/j.1151-2916.2003.tb03517.x.pd

Cardiac Gene Transfer of Short Hairpin RNA Directed Against Phospholamban Effectively Knocks Down Gene Expression but Causes Cellular Toxicity in Canines

Derangements in calcium cycling have been described in failing hearts, and preclinical studies have suggested that therapies aimed at correcting this defect can lead to improvements in cardiac function and survival. One strategy to improve calcium cycling would be to inhibit phospholamban (PLB), the negative regulator of SERCA2a that is upregulated in failing hearts. The goal of this study was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of using adeno-associated virus (AAV)-mediated cardiac gene transfer of short hairpin RNA (shRNA) to knock down expression of PLB. Six dogs were treated with self-complementary AAV serotype 6 (scAAV6) expressing shRNA against PLB. Three control dogs were treated with empty AAV6 capsid, and two control dogs were treated with scAAV6 expressing dominant negative PLB. Vector was delivered via a percutaneously inserted cardiac injection catheter. PLB mRNA and protein expression were analyzed in three of six shRNA dogs between days 16 and 26. The other three shRNA dogs and five control dogs were monitored long-term to assess cardiac safety. PLB mRNA was reduced 16-fold, and PLB protein was reduced 5-fold, with treatment. Serum troponin elevation and depressed cardiac function were observed in the shRNA group only at 4 weeks. An enzyme-linked immunospot assay failed to detect any T cells reactive to AAV6 capsid in peripheral blood mononuclear cells, heart, or spleen. Microarray analysis revealed alterations in cardiac expression of several microRNAs with shRNA treatment. AAV6-mediated cardiac gene transfer of shRNA effectively knocks down PLB expression but is associated with severe cardiac toxicity. Toxicity may result from dysregulation of endogenous microRNA pathways

Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of the in situ Β-Si 3 N 4 /Α′-SiAlON Composite

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/65911/1/j.1151-2916.1994.tb04604.x.pd