The Farm Debt Crisis and Public Policy

macroeconomics, farm debt crisis, agricultural banking

The Farm Debt Crisis and Public Policy

U.S. farms, and with them agricultural lending institutions, are currently experiencing their most severe stress since the 1930s. From 1980 to 1984, the average real value of the U.S. farmland dropped by 29 percent. The decline has been most pronounced in the Corn Belt and the Northern Plains states that produce cash grains, general livestock, and dairy products; in Nebraska, for example, the real value of farmland is half what is was in 1980. The erosion in the value of equity has had the effect of increasing the leverage of many farm borrowers. Delinquent loans have increased substantially hitting 7.5 percent of total loans at small agricultural banks by mid-1985

Hedgehog signaling is required at multiple stages of zebrafish tooth development

Background. The accessibility of the developing zebrafish pharyngeal dentition makes it an advantageous system in which to study many aspects of tooth development from early initiation to late morphogenesis. In mammals, hedgehog signaling is known to be essential for multiple stages of odontogenesis; however, potential roles for the pathway during initiation of tooth development or in later morphogenesis are incompletely understood. Results. We have identified mRNA expression of the hedgehog ligands shha and the receptors ptc1 and ptc2 during zebrafish pharyngeal tooth development. We looked for, but did not detect, tooth germ expression of the other known zebrafish hedgehog ligands shhb, dhh, ihha, or ihhb, suggesting that as in mammals, only Shh participates in zebrafish tooth development. Supporting this idea, we found that morphological and gene expression evidence of tooth initiation is eliminated in shha mutant embryos, and that morpholino antisense oligonucleotide knockdown of shha, but not shhb, function prevents mature tooth formation. Hedgehog pathway inhibition with the antagonist compound cyclopamine affected tooth formation at each stage in which we applied it: arresting development at early stages and disrupting mature tooth morphology when applied later. These results suggest that hedgehog signaling is required continuously during odontogenesis. In contrast, over-expression of shha had no effect on the developing dentition, possibly because shha is normally extensively expressed in the zebrafish pharyngeal region. Conclusion. We have identified previously unknown requirements for hedgehog signaling for early tooth initiation and later morphogenesis. The similarity of our results with data from mouse and other vertebrates suggests that despite gene duplication and changes in the location of where teeth form, the roles of hedgehog signaling in tooth development have been largely conserved during evolution. © 2010 Jackman et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd

Use of Expected Progeny Differences for Marbling in Beef: I. Production Traits

Six Angus bulls with HIGH (\u3e.4) and six bulls with LOW (\u3c-.16) expected progeny differences (EPD) for marbling were used to evaluate the impact of marbling on progeny production and carcass traits. Bulls were randomly bred to MARC II (¼ Hereford, ¼ Simmental, ¼ Angus, ¼ Gelbvieh) composite cows in each of 2 yr to calve in the spring. At weaning, steers and heifers were separated and managed in different production systems. Steers (n = 131) were fed a growing diet (1.1 Mcal of NEg/kg) for 48 d followed by adaptation to a 93% concentrate finishing diet. Heifers (n = 125) were fed a growing diet (.79 Mcal of NEg/kg) for 191 d followed by adaptation to the same 93% concentrate diet. Steers and heifers from each treatment were slaughtered at two times spaced about 60 d apart within both years. Marbling EPD class had no effect on fat thickness, USDA yield grade, carcass weight, finishing daily gain, finishing DMI, or finishing efficiency ( P \u3e .18). More ( P \u3c .05) carcasses of calves from sires with HIGH EPD for marbling graded USDA Choice than from LOW EPD sires, 74% vs 47%, respectively. Angus sires can be selected to produce progeny that have increased ability to grade Choice without increasing yield grade or decreasing animal growth or feed efficiency

Building confidence in projections of the responses of living marine resources to climate change

The Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change highlights that climate change and ocean acidification are challenging the sustainable management of living marine resources (LMRs). Formal and systematic treatment of uncertainty in existing LMR projections, however, is lacking. We synthesize knowledge of how to address different sources of uncertainty by drawing from climate model intercomparison efforts. We suggest an ensemble of available models and projections, informed by observations, as a starting point to quantify uncertainties. Such an ensemble must be paired with analysis of the dominant uncertainties over different spatial scales, time horizons, and metrics. We use two examples: (i) global and regional projections of Sea Surface Temperature and (ii) projection of changes in potential catch of sablefish (Anoplopoma fimbria) in the 21st century, to illustrate this ensemble model approach to explore different types of uncertainties. Further effort should prioritize understanding dominant, undersampled dimensions of uncertainty, as well as the strategic collection of observations to quantify, and ultimately reduce, uncertainties. Our proposed framework will improve our understanding of future changes in LMR and the resulting risk of impacts to ecosystems and the societies under changing ocean conditions

A content analysis in reverse logistics: a review

The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review in the various publications on the concept of Reverse Logistics (RL) and the related areas within the period 1998-2012. The content analysis approach has been opted to collect the relevant information from different books, journals, and conferences. A broad review of literature in RL from its emergence until the recent discussions have been analyzed and compared in this research. The findings show that, the theoretical construct in RL has been initiated from the conjunction features in the waste management and logistics activities. This idea had been developed by introducing the new term as RL and its definitions and contents such as the activities; key drivers; barriers to use; material flow, and networks in RL. Furthermore, the findings present the various modelling in different aspects of RL, for instance, the mathematical modelling by applying the existence methods in Multi Attribute Decision-Making Models (MADM). In addition, the environmental concerns and governmental legislatives matters and impacts, which have been highlighted, recently, on RL have been deliberated. Hence, this paper would assist the researchers and practitioners to obtain a broad review of RL in the last decade and, also provide an agenda for the future researches

TESS asteroseismology of the known red-giant host stars HD 212771 and HD 203949

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