Regional Yield Insurance for Arable Crops in EU-27

Replaced with revised version of paper 11/18/08.Area yield insurance, index insurance, yield risk, Agricultural Finance, Risk and Uncertainty,

Effects of combination drug therapy on the subcutaneous and pulmonary growth of a slow and a fast-growing C3H/He mammary carcinoma

Changes in susceptibility to treatment with Cytoxan, methotrexate, 5-fluorouracil, and Adriamycin, single or in combination, have been studied during the initial and progressive stages of s.c. and pulmonary (via tail vein injection) growth of two transplanted syngeneic C3H/He mammary carcinomas. One tumor was fast growing, reaching a size of 3 mm from a 1-mm s.c. implant in 7 days; the second tumor would grow to the same size in 30 days. The tumor with the slower growth rate was more susceptible to drug treatment, manifested by delayed growth as well as by prevented growth. The slower-growing tumor also remained susceptible longer, when treatment was delayed, than did the faster-growing tumor. Pulmonary growth was more often prevented by drug treatment than was s.c. growth. Tumor implants s.c. which had reached palpable size could be reduced temporarily to impalpable size by effective drug treatment but were rarely cured. The importance of early treatment relative to the time of tumor implantation was indicated when early treatment with a single drug proved more effective than did delayed treatment with a more potent combination of drugs

Damage Intensity of Clove (Syzygium aromaticum L.) Due to Pests And Diseases In Hitu Lama Village, Lehitu District, Central Maluku Regency

This study aims to determine the main pests and diseases of tuni and forest clove and to get data of the damage intensity caused by them in clove plantation (“dusung”) in Hitu Lama village, Leihitu District, Central Maluku Regency. The method used is a survey method in four dusung of each tuni clove and forest clove. The observation of plant damage was done on 10% of plants in each dusung. The results showed that the main pest on tuni clove is stem borer (Nothopeus sp.) while on forest clove is a leaf eater. The main diseases found on both cloves plants is leaf spot disease (Cylindrocladium quinguseptatum and Pestalotia palmarum). The damage intensity of stem borer on tuni clove was 31.76% (moderate category) and leaf eaters on forest clove was 12.11% (mild category). The intensity of damage due to leaf spot disease on tuni and forest cloves was 23.39% and 20.76% respectively, both are mild category

Heterogeneous Treatment and Spillover Effects under Clustered Network Interference

The bulk of causal inference studies rules out the presence of interference between units. However, in many real-world settings units are interconnected by social, physical or virtual ties and the effect of a treatment can spill from one unit to other connected individuals in the network. In these settings, interference should be taken into account to avoid biased estimates of the treatment effect, but it can also be leveraged to save resources and provide the intervention to a lower percentage of the population where the treatment is more effective and where the effect can spill over to other susceptible individuals. In fact, different people might respond differently not only to the treatment received but also to the treatment received by their network contacts. Understanding the heterogeneity of treatment and spillover effects can help policy-makers in the scale-up phase of the intervention, it can guide the design of targeting strategies with the ultimate goal of making the interventions more cost-effective, and it might even allow generalizing the level of treatment spillover effects in other populations. In this paper, we develop a machine learning method that makes use of tree-based algorithms and an Horvitz-Thompson estimator to assess the heterogeneity of treatment and spillover effects with respect to individual, neighborhood and network characteristics in the context of clustered network interference. We illustrate how the proposed binary tree methodology performs in a Monte Carlo simulation study. Additionally, we provide an application on a randomized experiment aimed at assessing the heterogeneous effects of information sessions on the uptake of a new weather insurance policy in rural China

Designing Natural Language Output for the IoT

A large number of devices categorised as "Internet of Things" (IoT) that are in the consumer market are designed to autonomously monitor things of interest to users. These devices often make use of natural language output, more specifically textual messages, as a way to notify users. These messages are commonly simple predetermined strings. Some IoT devices however are designed to report on complex applications, which may be difficult for users without technical domain knowledge to understand. In this work, we present an initial evaluation in which we investigated how users' inclination to attend to a monitoring system is affected by different levels of information. Based our findings, we discuss future avenues of research which we believe will further our understanding of natural language output's application in the IoT domain

Activity and Rotation in the young cluster h Per

We study the stellar rotation-activity relation in the crucial age at which stars reach the fastest rotation. To this aim we have analyzed data of the young cluster h Per, very rich and compact, located at 2300 pc, that at an age of 13 Myr should be mainly composed of stars that have ended their contraction phase and that have not lost significant angular momentum viamagnetic breaking. To constrain the activity level of h Per members we have analyzed a deep Chandra/ACIS-I observation. Rotational periods of h Per members have been derived by Moraux et al. (2013) in the framework of the MONITOR project (Aigrain et al. 2007; Irwin et al. 2007). In the Chandra observation we have detected 1010 X-ray sources located in the central field of h Persei. Assuming a distance of 2300 pc their X-ray luminosity ranges between 2x10^29 and 6x10^31 erg/s. Among the 1010 x-ray sources ~600 have as optical counterpart candidate members of the cluster with masses ranging down to 0.3 solar mass, and ˜150 have also measured rotational period. For this sample of ˜150 h Per members we have compared X-ray luminosity and rotational periods for different mass ranges. We have found that solar type stars (~1.3 solar mass) show evidence of supersaturation for short periods. This phenomenon is unobserved for lower mass stars

The effectiveness of interventions for optometric referrals into the hospital eye service: A review

Purpose: Ophthalmic services are currently under considerable stress; in the UK, ophthalmology departments have the highest number of outpatient appointments of any department within the National Health Service. Recognising the need for intervention, several approaches have been trialled to tackle the high numbers of false-positive referrals initiated in primary care and seen face to face within the hospital eye service (HES). In this mixed-methods narrative synthesis, we explored interventions based on their clinical impact, cost and acceptability to determine whether they are clinically effective, safe and sustainable. A systematic literature search of PubMed, MEDLINE and CINAHL, guided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA), was used to identify appropriate studies published between December 2001 and December 2022. Recent Findings: A total of 55 studies were reviewed. Four main interventions were assessed, where two studies covered more than one type: training and guidelines (n = 8), referral filtering schemes (n = 32), asynchronous teleophthalmology (n = 13) and synchronous teleophthalmology (n = 5). All four approaches demonstrated effectiveness for reducing false-positive referrals to the HES. There was sufficient evidence for stakeholder acceptance and cost-effectiveness of referral filtering schemes; however, cost comparisons involved assumptions. Referral filtering and asynchronous teleophthalmology reported moderate levels of false-negative cases (2%–20%), defined as discharged patients requiring HES monitoring. Summary: The effectiveness of interventions varied depending on which outcome and stakeholder was considered. More studies are required to explore stakeholder opinions around all interventions. In order to maximise clinical safety, it may be appropriate to combine more than one approach, such as referral filtering schemes with virtual review of discharged patients to assess the rate of false-negative cases. The implementation of a successful intervention is more complex than a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach and there is potential space for newer types of interventions, such as artificial intelligence clinical support systems within the referral pathway

Managing energy tariffs with agents: a field study of a future smart energy system at home

© 2015 ACM.Interactive autonomous systems are likely to be more involved in future energy systems to assist human users. Given this, we prototyped a future scenario in which householders are assisted in switching electricity tariffs by an agent-based interactive system. The system uses real-time electricity monitoring to instantiate a scenario where participants may have to make, or delegate to their agent (in a variety ways), tariff switching decisions given uncertainty about their own consumption. We carried out a field trial with 12 households for 6 weeks in order to study the notion of autonomy. The results show nuanced ways in which monitoring system performance and taking control is balanced in everyday practice. Our field study provides promising directions for future use of smart systems that help householders manage their energy

Isolasi Trichoderma Spp. Dan Daya Antagonismenya Terhadap Sclerotium Rolfsii Sacc. Penyebab Penyakit Layu Pada Tanaman Cabai (Capsicum Anuum) Secara In-vitro

Penelitian ini bertujuan mengisolasi dan menguji kemampuan antagonis Trichoderma spp. terhadap Sclerotium rolfsii Sacc. penyebab layu pada tanaman cabai dan telah dilaksanakan di Laboratorium Patogenisitas Fakultas Pertanian Unpatti, dengan menggunakan 5 perlakuan isolat Trichoderma spp. (Tc3, Tc4, Tc5, Tc6 dan Tc7) dengan 3 ulangan sehingga terdapat 15 satuan percobaan. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa kelima isolat Trichoderma sp. mempunyai daya antagonis terhadap S. rolfsii dengan rata-rata persentase penghambatan S. rolfsii sebesar 26%. Hasil analisis varians pada taraf 95% menunjukkan tidak ada perbedaan nyata antara perlakuan. Rata-rata persentase penghambatan S. rolfsii oleh Trichoderma spp. masing-masing perlakuan berturut-turut adalah Tc6 = 27,31%, Tc3 = 26,63%, Tc5 = 26,05%, Tc7 = 25,69% dan Tc4 = 24,37%, dengan rata-rata 26,01%. Kata kunci: antagonisme, Trichoderma spp., Sclerotium rolfsi