IMPACTS OF GENETICALLY MODIFIED (GM) TRAITS ON CONVENTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES

In hard red spring (HRS) wheat, the two GM traits nearest to commercialization are fusarium resistant wheat (FRW) from Syngenta and Roundup Ready® wheat (RRW). Monsanto announced that it has deferred the commercialization of RRW until issues of market acceptance are alleviated. Monsanto acknowledged that it might reconsider its position if another agbiotechnology firm enters the GM wheat market. A Cournot quantity competition model was developed to determine the equilibrium quantities of conventional pesticide and agbiotechnology firms. The Cournot model was used because firms that must make production decisions ahead of the selling period, and firms with extensive research and development costs are not able to aggressively set prices. Rather, the conventional and agbiotechnology firms determine Nash equilibrium quantities and then determine a market clearing price for their respective products. The agbiotechnology firm determined a profit maximizing technology fee ($/acre) for its GM trait. The market with conventional wheat only was compared to the market with conventional and GM wheat varieties to determine the price decreases of the conventional pesticide as a result of the GM trait introduction. Changes in farmer surplus, tech firm payoffs, and sector welfare were also analyzed. Using the actual number of firms with conventional herbicides labeled for use on HRS wheat in North Dakota and marginal production costs ranging from one to three dollars, introduction of RRW would cause a 20-25% price decrease for conventional herbicides. Similarly, four firms produce conventional fungicides labeled for the suppression of FHB in HRS wheat. This value, combined with per acre marginal production costs ranging from one to three dollars, would likely cause a 19-22% price decrease for conventional fungicides, post introduction of GM FRW. Several implications arise from these results. First, adoption of a new GM wheat variety may not be as high as expected due to likely concurrent price decreases of conventional pesticides. The price decrease leads to a lower production cost of conventional varieties, and some farmers who would likely adopt the GM variety, if there were no price decrease, do not adopt because of the lower cost of conventional production. This price decrease must be included in the determination of potential adoption rates by agbiotechnology firms in their pricing decisions. Second, the release of a GM wheat variety results in an increase in surplus for all types of wheat farmers (GM adopters, conventional pesticide adopters, and no technology adopters). GM adopters benefit because of the release of the GM variety. Conventional pesticide adopters benefit due to the price decreases of the conventional pesticides. Farmers who did not adopt any technology prior to the release of GM wheat may adopt the conventional pesticide because of the lower cost. Third, the release of a GM wheat variety would result in slightly lower payoffs for conventional pesticide producing firms but higher payoffs for agbiotechnology firms. Overall, surplus to farmers and conventional and agbiotechnology firms increases due to the release of a GM wheat variety.genetic modification, fusarium resistance, Roundup Ready®, technology, Crop Production/Industries, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

STRATEGIC ANALYSIS OF TRAIT COMMERCIALIZATION IN GENETICALLY MODIFIED (GM) GRAINS: THE CASE OF GM WHEAT

The prospective commercialization of GM traits leads to several strategic questions for agbiotechnology and seed firms. Important issues addressed in this study include the method of trait commercialization by agbiotechnology firms and variety production decisions by seed firms. Specifically, agbiotechnology firms must decide whether to license their traits to seed firms, to purchase a seed firm, or to not license or release their traits. These issues are highly strategic. The purpose of this study was to determine equilibrium strategies of agbiotechnology and seed firms regarding the prospective commercialization of two GM traits. Two game theory models were developed to examine equilibrium strategies in two different scenarios. In the first model, both agbiotechnology firms had commercialization strategies of licensing and not licensing. In the second model, the first moving agbiotechnology firm was allowed to have a strategic option to purchase a seed firm as a commercialization strategy. The second agbiotechnology firm remained with two strategies, licensing and not licensing. These models were applied to the case of Roundup Ready® (RR) and fusarium resistant (FR) HRS wheat, although the general structure of the models could be used to analyze other crops and traits. Studies on trait commercialization and stacking are lacking the public literature. This study uses game theory models to develop likely situations that may occur regarding the prospective commercialization of GM traits.genetically modified grains, wheat, Crop Production/Industries, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Reinterpreted Europe: An Assessment of EU (In) Ability to Deal with Threats to the Rule of Law

The European Union has been the primary promoter of democracy and rule of law to its neighbors to the east. Much of the early scholarship as well as official documents on the EU’s transfer of norms to the east have shown some degree of optimism and expectation of serious reforms. Fast forward to its contemporary experience and the situation is significantly more grim than anticipated. Major think tanks like Freedom House, The Economist Democracy Index, and EU Venice Commission Reports show a stagnation and reversal on the question of rule of law, despite the millions of euros spent on anti-corruption and judicial reforms. This dissertation examines the transformation in Europe’s normative power i.e. rule of law norm from relative stability to a system where individual member states are openly challenging this cardinal EU norm. This study uses two case studies as reference points for assessing the robustness of the norm and examines the European community’s responses in light of the rule of law crisis in Poland and Hungary. It seeks to answer questions regarding the consequences of the current crisis on the integration process itself. How to consider change in the Europeanization process? What impact will Europe’s autocrats have upon on EU’s self understanding? Ultimately, there is strong evidence that suggests norm contestation has led to a deeper commitment to the norm as more than a “moral duty”, increasingly shifting to realm of interest when it comes to the EU. To this end, other factors which help shed light on the context of contestation are discussed including domestic politics of case study countries, economic factors, and historical traditions. Thus Europe is in the process of re-identifying its own understandings, seeking to rearticulate principles at the bedrock of its foundation

Rupture of the Prepubic Tendon of a Ewe

A two year old Hampshire ewe was brought to the Iowa State College Veterinary Clinic on Feb. 17, 1941. The normal gestation period was almost completed. The ewe had become lame about ten days prior to the time she was presented. The only external cause the owner was aware of which could possibly be a factor in the case was the fact that the ewe had to jump over a ten inch door sill to get into the stable

Myxo-fibromae on the Head of a Bull

An eighteen-month-old Shorthorn bull was brought to the Charles Henry Stange Memorial Clinic on April 15, 1941. This animal had a large growth on the right frontal region which hung down over the right eye. Two similar, but smaller growths were also present, one involving the left horn and the other the right side of the neck. The animal was examined, and although no exact diagnosis as to the nature of the growth was made, it was evident that surgery would be necessary if a recovery was to be effected

An Examination of the Relationship Between Information Content and Readership in Agricultural Advertising

The relationship between information content and Starch readership scores in The Farmer magazine from 1979 through 1985 was investigated. The information content of the agricultural advertisements was determined through content analysis using criteria developed to assess the amount of information that contributes to a rational buying decision. The results indicated that 99.4 percent of the advertisements contained information. There was a decrease in the average number of information cues per advertisement over time. There were no significant positive correlations between the information content and the readership score over time for any of the agricultural product categories studied. There were several significant negative correlations between the information content and the readership score. The significant correlations show that in some cases a high amount of information in an advertisement results in a lower readership score

Optimal definition of biological tumor volume using positron emission tomography in an animal model

BACKGROUND: The goal of the study is to investigate (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography ((18)F-FDG-PET)’s ability to delineate the viable portion of a tumor in an animal model using cross-sectional histology as the validation standard. METHODS: Syngeneic mammary tumors were grown in female Lewis rats. Macroscopic histological images of the transverse tumor sections were paired with their corresponding FDG micro-PET slices of the same cranial-caudal location to form 51 pairs of co-registered images. A binary classification system based on four FDG-PET tumor contouring methods was applied to each pair of images: threshold based on (1) percentage of maximum tumor voxel counts (C(max)), (2) percentage of tumor peak voxel counts (C(peak)), (3) multiples of liver mean voxel counts (C(liver)) derived from PERCIST, and (4) an edge-detection-based automated contouring system. The sensitivity, which represented the percentage of viable tumor areas correctly delineated by the gross tumor area (GTA) generated from a particular tumor contouring method, and the ratio (expressed in percentage) of the overestimated areas of a gross tumor area (GTA(OE))/whole tumor areas on the macroscopic histology (WTA(H)), which represented how much a particular GTA extended into the normal structures surrounding the primary tumor target, were calculated. RESULTS: The receiver operating characteristic curves of all pairs of FDG-PET images have a mean area under the curve value of 0.934 (CI of 0.911–0.954), for representing how well each contouring method accurately delineated the viable tumor area. FDG-PET single value threshold tumor contouring based on 30 and 35 % of tumor C(max) or C(peak) and 6 × C(liver) + 2 × SD achieved a sensitivity greater than 90 % with a GTA(OE)/WTA(H) ratio less than 10 %. Contouring based on 50 % of C(max) or C(peak) had a much lower sensitivity of 67.2–75.6 % with a GTA(OE)/WTA(H) ratio of 1.1–1.7 %. Automated edge detection was not reliable in this system. CONCLUSIONS: Single-value-threshold tumor contouring using (18)F-FDG-PET is able to accurately delineate the viable portion of a tumor. 30 and 35 % of C(max), 30 and 35 % of C(peak), and 6 × C(liver) + 2 × SD are three appropriate threshold values to delineate viable tumor volume in our animal model. The commonly used threshold value of 50 % of C(max) or C(peak) failed to detect one third of the viable tumor volume in our model