DIVERSIFYING AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS: AN EXTERNAL ANALYSIS OF STATE VALUE-ADDED PROGRAMS

An increasing number of farmers in the United States are finding more opportunity to participate in value-added activities beyond their commodity production. Issues' such as low farm income, increasing marketing margins, and a desire to enhance demand for local commodities-generate more interest in identifying suitable value-added activities. Many states are providing programs to help promote and support farmers interested in leading the development of new food products. This paper examines the objectives and development strategies of several value-added state programs. Special attention is paid to the extent to which the programs create opportunities for farmers in different income groups. Programs profiled in this research include Iowa's Rural Economic Value-Added Mentoring Program (REVAMP), North Dakota's Agricultural Utilization Research Institute (AURI), Minnesota's Agricultural Products Utilization Commission (APUC), and other centers and programs in Colorado, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Oklahoma. A survey is conducted of the center directors to provide a profile of each program's scope and state's objectives, development strategy, and performance measures. This paper assesses the effectiveness of variously structured value-added programs as stated by the survey; it also summarizes recommended strategies for improvement. Cost considerations and long-term justification of these value-added centers is also considered. Institutional design, recommendations, central policy issues, and program performance measures are discussed. States considering the implementation or expansion of such programs will want to evaluate their design based on these findings.Agricultural and Food Policy,

Deformations of bordered Riemann surfaces and associahedral polytopes

We consider the moduli space of bordered Riemann surfaces with boundary and marked points. Such spaces appear in open-closed string theory, particularly with respect to holomorphic curves with Lagrangian submanifolds. We consider a combinatorial framework to view the compactification of this space based on the pair-of-pants decomposition of the surface, relating it to the well-known phenomenon of bubbling. Our main result classifies all such spaces that can be realized as convex polytopes. A new polytope is introduced based on truncations of cubes, and its combinatorial and algebraic structures are related to generalizations of associahedra and multiplihedra.Comment: 25 pages, 31 figure

Brats: A Memoir

There are two Americas. There is the America where families grow up generation after generation in the same geographic location. There is another America. This America moves populations about as if they were post-it notes attached to a bulletin board. Today, Great Lakes, tomorrow, Fort Carson, next week, Fort Wainwright, and so on. In this America, children rarely spend more than two years in the same location. Many are uprooted in the middle of a school year, often the senior year. Many do not know where home is, as their sponsor (the family member in the military) has not lived there in many years. The children of this nomadic group cling to its brand name, Brats, as tenaciously as the owners of Apple or Ralph Lauren do to their products. Brats are the children of people in the military. They often go to school on military installations, belong to organizations sponsored by the military, shop at the Commissary, and buy their clothes at the “Exchange.” Whatever community they live in, they know that they are often viewed as outsiders. What is life like for these children? What is it like living in the shadow of an authoritarian organization or a household ruled by an authoritarian parent, often the patriarch? As these children shift from location to location, how are they affected by the constant creation and destruction of personal relationships? This book gives an unvarnished view into the world of brats

China Maritime Report No. 8: Winning Friends and Influencing People: Naval Diplomacy with Chinese Characteristics

In recent years, Chinese leaders have called on the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) to carry out tasks related to naval diplomacy beyond maritime East Asia, in the “far seas.” Designed to directly support broader strategic and foreign policy objectives, the PLAN participates in a range of overtly political naval diplomatic activities, both ashore and at sea, from senior leader engagements to joint exercises with foreign navies. These activities have involved a catalogue of platforms, from surface combatants to hospital ships, and included Chinese naval personnel of all ranks. To date, these acts of naval diplomacy have been generally peaceful and cooperative in nature, owing primarily to the service’s limited power projection capabilities and China’s focus on more pressing security matters closer to home. However, in the future a more blue-water capable PLAN could serve more overtly coercive functions to defend and advance China’s rapidly growing overseas interests when operating abroad.https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/cmsi-maritime-reports/1007/thumbnail.jp

Rapid diffusion of the lipid phosphorus of phosphatidylglycerol liposomes through polycarbonate membranes is caused by the oxidation of the unsaturated fatty acids

AbstractThe lipid phosphorus of phosphatidylglycerol liposomes was found to diffuse extensively, after a lag time of 1 to 2 days, through a 0.1 μm pore size polycarbonate membrane in a two compartment system. Diffusion occurred when either multilamellar or large unilamellar vesicles were studied, even if they were sedimented to eliminate any smaller particles. The lipid of liposomes prepared under sterile conditions also diffused extensively. Diffusion appeared to be related to the age of the vesicles, and could be eliminated by incorporating antioxidants into the liposomes, or by using liposomes prepared from saturated phospholipids (C14 or larger). This indicated that diffusion was caused by phospholipid oxidation, which was confirmed by HPLC analysis. Phospholipid phosphorus that diffused through a membrane appeared more polar, as indicated by its capacity to distribute into the upper phase of a two phase extraction. Phospholipid phosphorus diffusion was preceded by the complete loss of liposomes contents, indicated by the complete diffusion of encapsulated carboxyfluorescein through the membrane. Oxidation of the lipid could be prevented by inclusion of either butylated hydroxytoluene or α-tocopherol in the membrane. The best retention of liposomal contents was achieved when both antioxidants and cholesterol were included in the liposome preparation. The antioxidant incorporated in the liposomes remained effective in protecting the phospholipids upon storage at 4°C for 2 months. The inclusion of EDTA in the suspension medium retarded the rapid oxidation, suggesting that the presence of trace amounts of heavy metal ions in the buffer catalyzed the oxidation. Phospholipid oxidation was most effectively inhibited by the presence of serum or chemically defined medium, suggesting that oxidation of liposomal lipids in a biological environment may be minimized if appropriate steps are taken

Motivational assessment of mice using the touchscreen operant testing system: effects of dopaminergic drugs.

RATIONALE: Touchscreens are widely used to examine rodent cognition. Current paradigms require animals to view stimuli and nose poke at an appropriate touchscreen location. After responding, there is little screen interaction and, as infra-red touchscreens eliminate the need for physical contact, minimal somatosensory feedback. It is therefore unclear if touchscreens can support the vigorous, repetitive responding required in paradigms like progressive ratio (PR) for assessing motivation and effort-related choice (ERC) for assessing decision-making. OBJECTIVES: This study aims to adapt and validate PR and ERC for the rodent touchscreen. METHODS: Male C57Bl/6 mice were trained until responding on PR stabilised. Amphetamine, sulpiride and raclopride were administered via the intraperitoneal route to modify performance. Mice were transferred to ERC and paradigm parameters adjusted to demonstrate behavioural modification. ERC reward preference was assessed by home cage choice analysis. RESULTS: PR performance stabilised within seven sessions. Amphetamine (1 mg/kg) increased and raclopride (0.3 mg/kg) decreased performance by 63 and 28 %, respectively, with a 20-min injection-test interval. Sulpiride (50 mg/kg) decreased performance by 19 % following a 40-min injection-test interval. Increasing ERC operant requirements shifted responding from the operant response-dependent preferred reward towards the freely available alternative. CONCLUSIONS: Vigorous, repetitive responding is sustainable in touchscreen PR and ERC and task validation mirrors non-touchscreen versions. Thus, motivation and reward-related decision-making can be measured directly with touchscreens and can be evaluated prior to cognitive testing in the same apparatus to avoid confounding by motivational factors.CJH, TJB and LMS were funded by Wellcome Trust grant 089703/Z/09/Z. TJB and LMS also received funding from the Innovative Medicine Initiative Joint Undertaking under grant agreement no 115008 of which resources are composed of EFPIA in-kind contribution and financial contribution from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013).This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00213-015-4009-

Re-populating city centres: the role of post-War office to residential conversions

By the mid-1990s, a new phenomenon of converting obsolete post-war office space into residential use within city centres was beginning to emerge in London, Melbourne, Paris, Toronto and other global cities. This type of development activity has been seen as a panacea for many problems encountered at the end of the twentieth century, including: the ability to meet the increasing demand for new homes; the need to develop in a more sustainable manner; and the desire to revitalise urban and city centres. This thesis concentrates upon such activity in England and identifies that there are five categories of significant barriers and drivers to this process: physical or design-related; locational; financial or economic; demand-related; and legislative factors. The latter two dimensions of the conversion process are examined in detail to reveal the role and impact of the planning system and the perceptions and demand for city centre living particularly in terms of office conversions. The research reveals that the occurrences of post-war office conversions have spread beyond London in the UK, however, its potential remains under exploited due to the impact of the factors identified above. This research therefore plays an important role in furthering the understanding of the demand for and perceptions of city centre residential accommodation together with the advantages and disadvantages of living in these areas. In addition, this thesis identifies the impact of post-war office conversion at a national level and the extent to which the planning system is facilitating or hindering this process. As such, these two potential barriers to conversion activity that have previously been neglected areas of research are analysed in depth and recommendations are made that can facilitate the development process

Mallory-Weiss Syndrome in the Setting of Multiple Seizures

Background: Mallory-Weiss syndrome is a longitudinal mucosal laceration in the distal esophagus and proximal stomach, usually associated with forceful retching or vomiting. Here, we present a case of Mallory Weiss syndrome in the setting of multiple seizures without any retching or vomiting. Case Presentation: A 64-year-old man with history of epilepsy on anticonvulsant medications presented to the emergency department with complaints of multiple seizures. During the initial evaluation, he was alert, in no acute distress and was answering questions appropriately. He denied any trauma, loss of consciousness, nausea, vomiting, retching, tongue biting or incontinence. On examination, blood pressure was 92/53 mmHg and heart rate 98. His labs were significant for normocytic anemia with a hemoglobin of 9.7. In the ED, he had another seizure with no reported nausea, vomiting or retching. He was stabilized with anticonvulsants and IV hydration. Despite adequate fluid resuscitation, the patient remained hypotensive and was started on norepinephrine for undifferentiated shock. A few hours later, he had large volume hematemesis and developed hemorrhagic shock. On examination, he was lethargic but arousable. Repeat labs showed a drop in hemoglobin from 9.7 to 4.7. Patient received IV fluids, blood transfusions and required an additional pressor. He was also started on pantoprazole infusion, metoclopramide, and octreotide. After the patient was stabilized, EGD was performed and revealed a Mallory Weiss tear at gastroesophageal junction which was treated with an epinephrine injection. Patient was subsequently weaned off the pressors and discharged home with adjustments to anticonvulsants and a follow up appointment. Conclusion: It is essential to recognize gastrointestinal bleeding as a cause of cardiovascular collapse in the setting of seizures, despite absence of typical symptoms such as nausea, vomiting or retching. High suspicion may lead to early surveillance and prevention of Mallory-Weiss tear in epileptic patients