COOPERATIVE MARKETING IN SPECIALTY GRAINS AND IDENTITY PRESERVED GRAIN MARKETS

Marketing of specialty and identity preserved grains has become an important strategy in the grain marketing industry and is being driven, in part, by consumer and processor demand and an interest in non-GM products. This study provides background and practices of numerous organizations involved in marketing of specialty/identity preserved grains. Supporting marketing activities are reviewed. Key factors in the success (or failure) of their efforts are identified. Major challenges facing the participants in the specialty/IP grain marketing industry are discussed. The primary focus is on the role of agricultural cooperatives and producer owned alliances.identity preservation, IP, segregation, traceability, specialty products, genetically modified, GM, non-GM, cooperative, alliance., Agribusiness,

Bullying and Team Sports: An Exploratory Case Study on Adults’ Recollections

For children and adolescents, there are many physical, social, emotional, and psychological benefits in organized team sports participation. However, what happens when those team environments turn negative as a result of teammate bullying? By using a qualitative case study approach, the goal of this inquiry was to gain a better understanding of the impact this type of bullying has on teammates. Through purposeful sampling, the lived experience of two participants was investigated through multiple in-depth, semi-structured interviews. Together with the participants, the researcher recreated and co-constructed the participants’ experiences, views, and meanings of the teammate bullying they encountered while participating on organized sports teams. The objective of this research was to generate significant, positive conversations on teammate bullying, which in turn would ideally promote healthier attitudes and behaviour changes within organized team sport environments. Educators, parents, and coaches may benefit from a better understanding of the impact teammate bullying has on individuals who experience such behaviours within their organized sport teams. The findings indicated that teammate bullying is flourishing within organized sports teams due to a lack of adult supervision and an adult reluctance to intervene. While such behaviour diminishes the victim’s “love for the game,” those who witness the bullying tend to normalize it in order to maintain their “love for the game.” While victims value the support of their peers during these bullying episodes, non-supportive bystanders feel remorse over their inactions during adulthood

Magnetic Battery Feasibility Study using Flux Switching Topology

Permanent magnets have long been known to store magnetic energy in the alignment of the magnetic domains within the material. This paper investigates the possibility of constructing a magnetic device which can effectively extract the stored potential energy from permanent magnets and convert that energy into electrical energy. The concept stemmed from a number of patents which claimed to effectively extract energy from strong neodymium or samarium cobalt magnets on a macroscopic scale using specially designed magnetic flux paths. Their method uses one of several different techniques to switch permanent magnet flux between alternating paths and electrical energy is extracted from coils intercepting this flux as it changes within the core. Using experimental testing, magnetic simulations, and theoretical predictions, our research examined this question. The experimental results indicate that the devices tested do not effectively extract magnetic energy from the magnetized materials under test, indicating that the design is not suitable for use as a magnetic battery

ISSUES IN DEVELOPMENT AND ADOPTION OF GENETICALLY MODIFIED (GM) WHEATS

Development of genetically modified (GM) wheat varieties is proceeding; however, several critical issues remain the focus of contention. This project summarizes the current state of knowledge on some of these critical issues for commercialization of GM wheats. Background on the evolution of GM Wheats is presented. Then, agronomic adoption and competitiveness of GM crops; research on GM traits in wheat; consumer acceptance of GM crops (a separate section is included on issues related to consumer acceptance of GM crops); regulatory issues and status; international trade; testing, segregation, and identity preservation; and production and marketing risks are examined. Finally, there is a description of the likely marketing system to evolve and a discussion of outstanding issues.wheat, genetic modification, transgenic, marketing, Crop Production/Industries, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Haplotype block dynamics in hybrid populations

When species originate through hybridization, the genomes of the ancestral species are blended together. Over time genomic blocks that originate from either one of the ancestral species accumulate in the hybrid genome through genetic recombination. Modeling the accumulation of ancestry blocks can elucidate processes and patterns of genomic admixture. However, previous models have ignored ancestry block dynamics for chromosomes that consist of a discrete, finite number of chromosomal elements. Here we present an analytical treatment of the dynamics of the mean number of blocks over time, for continuous and discrete chromosomes, in finite and infinite populations. We describe the mean number of haplotype blocks as a universal function dependent on population size, the number of genomic elements per chromosome, the number of recombination events, and the initial relative frequency of the ancestral species

Lack of Genetic Variation in Cytochrome bin a Population of Smooth Softshell Turtles

An important issue in intraspecific molecular phylogenetic studies concerns distribution of genetic variation within and among populations and, hence, within-population sample sizes used in analyses. To address this sampling issue, we sequenced a 795 base pair (bp) segment of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene from 19 unrelated individuals from a Louisiana population of the smooth softshell turtle (Apalone mutica LeSueur). We found a complete lack of within-population variation in this large segment of mtDNA. This result supports the use of minimal within-population sample sizes in intraspecific molecular phylogenetic studies of Apalone using cytochrome b

A Comparison of Production and Soils in Modified Mixed Prairie Community

This study examined the effects of reseeding a Stipa-Agropyron- Bouteloua community to monocultures of crested wheatgrass (Agropyron cristatum (L.) Geartn.), Russian wild rye grass (Elymus junceus Fisch.), and wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) on above and below ground biomass and indicators of soil quality. Summer fallowed wheat produced 10817 kg ha-1 and 4090 kg ha-1 of above ground below ground biomass respectively whereas the native community produced 3191 kg ha-1 above ground and 13013 kg ha-1 of below ground biomass. However wheat, crested wheatgrass and Russian wildrye grass generally showed a lower biological index, phosphatase and dehydrogenase activity

Decades of field data reveal that turtles senesce in the wild

Lifespan and aging rates vary considerably across taxa; thus, understanding the factors that lead to this variation is a primary goal in biology and has ramifications for understanding constraints and flexibility in human aging. Theory predicts that senescence—declining reproduction and increasing mortality with advancing age—evolves when selection against harmful mutations is weaker at old ages relative to young ages or when selection favors pleiotropic alleles with beneficial effects early in life despite late-life costs. However, in many long-lived ectotherms, selection is expected to remain strong at old ages because reproductive output typically increases with age, which may lead to the evolution of slow or even negligible senescence. We show that, contrary to current thinking, both reproduction and survival decline with adult age in the painted turtle, Chrysemys picta, based on data spanning \u3e20 y from a wild population. Older females, despite relatively high reproductive output, produced eggs with reduced hatching success. Additionally, age-specific mark–recapture analyses revealed increasing mortality with advancing adult age. These findings of reproductive and mortality senescence challenge the contention that chelonians do not age and more generally provide evidence of reduced fitness at old ages in nonmammalian species that exhibit long chronological lifespans

hasil-peer-review-sunardi-0521057401-C.2.4

Analysis of long-distance travel demand has become more relevant in recent times. The reason is the growing share of traffic induced by journeys related to remote activities, which are not part of daily life. In today’s mobile world, these journeys are responsible for almost 50 percent of the overall traffic. Consequently, there is a need of reliable long-distance travel forecast tools. A potential tool is an agent-based simulation. Due to the complex task of destination choice modelling, there are just few agent-based simulations available. This paper presents a continuous target-based simulation that simulates long-distance travel behavior for a long period of time. It is shown how destination choice is modelled in this agent-based simulation. We focus on the holiday destination choice, because it dominates the long-distances trips for the average traveler. The presented approach uses a heuristic to reduce the solution space. Afterwards, the optimal activity duration and activity location is computed simultaneously. This technique ensures a fast computation

The phase diagram of L\'evy spin glasses

We study the L\'evy spin-glass model with the replica and the cavity method. In this model each spin interacts through a finite number of strong bonds and an infinite number of weak bonds. This hybrid behaviour of L\'evy spin glasses becomes transparent in our solution: the local field contains a part propagating along a backbone of strong bonds and a Gaussian noise term due to weak bonds. Our method allows to determine the complete replica symmetric phase diagram, the replica symmetry breaking line and the entropy. The results are compared with simulations and previous calculations using a Gaussian ansatz for the distribution of fields.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figure