The Impact of Agricultural Market Liberalisation from a Gender Perspective: Evidence from Uganda.

Focusing on intra-household allocation, we investigate the effects of coffee market liberalisation in Uganda. As coffee has traditionally been a male domain, higher income from this activity might increase gender disparities. In addition, gender-related inefficiency in household production might undermine the positive impact of improved incentives. Using data from three household surveys conducted between 1992 and 2006, we estimate Engel curves, coffee yield and labour input equations incorporating bargaining proxies. We find that income from coffee is increasingly pooled and therefore shared more equally among household members. Yet, we can only detect partial improvements in production efficiency: bargaining still appears to constraint output efficiency and the distribution of household resources continues to follow gendered lines.Market liberalisation; Gender; Bargaining; Intra-household allocation; Sub-Saharan Africa; Uganda;

The Impact of Agricultural Market Liberalisation from a Gender Perspective: Evidence from Uganda

Focusing on intra-household allocation, we investigate the effects of coffee market liberalisation in Uganda. As coffee has traditionally been a male domain, higher income from this activity might increase gender disparities. In addition, gender-related inefficiency in household production might undermine the positive impact of improved incentives. Using data from three household surveys conducted between 1992 and 2006, we estimate Engel curves, coffee yield and labour input equations incorporating bargaining proxies. We find that income from coffee is increasingly pooled and therefore shared more equally among household members. Yet, we can only detect partial improvements in production efficiency: bargaining still appears to constraint output efficiency and the distribution of household resources continues to follow gendered lines. --Market liberalisation,Gender,Bargaining,Intra-household allocation,Sub-Saharan Africa,Uganda

Building Good Citizens: The Roles of School Size and Community Context in the Development of Democratic Values

This project examines the role of place in the socialization of young people into civic values, such as participation and tolerance. Are smaller communites better able to foster democratic values than larger ones? Are young people growing up in racially, economically and politically heterogeneous environments more likely to be politically active than those in homogeneous communities? These questions are related to perennial issues within political science, and are also closely tied to important questions in education policy related to school size. The case made by educational scholars that smaller schools are better for most educational outcomes is similar to the arguments others make about the benefits of small communities. I test whether smaller schools are better for democratic values, and examine the relationship between school size and community context. Are smaller schools better because of their size, or because they are most often found in smaller, more homogeneous communities? The results show that young people growing up in smaller towns, and those in less heterogeneous communities have higher levels of political knowledge and participation in school activities, but are less racially tolerant than adolescents living in larger, more diverse communities. In addition, the findings show that school size has very little influence on democratic values, except that young people in smaller schools are more likely to participate in school activities; and, smaller schools are of some benefit to children in urban areas. The final chapter discusses these results in terms of their normative and policy significance

Sub-20 nm Core-Shell-Shell Nanoparticles for Bright Upconversion and Enhanced Förster Resonant Energy Transfer.

Upconverting nanoparticles provide valuable benefits as optical probes for bioimaging and Förster resonant energy transfer (FRET) due to their high signal-to-noise ratio, photostability, and biocompatibility; yet, making nanoparticles small yields a significant decay in brightness due to increased surface quenching. Approaches to improve the brightness of UCNPs exist but often require increased nanoparticle size. Here we present a unique core-shell-shell nanoparticle architecture for small (sub-20 nm), bright upconversion with several key features: (1) maximal sensitizer concentration in the core for high near-infrared absorption, (2) efficient energy transfer between core and interior shell for strong emission, and (3) emitter localization near the nanoparticle surface for efficient FRET. This architecture consists of β-NaYbF4 (core) @NaY0.8-xErxGd0.2F4 (interior shell) @NaY0.8Gd0.2F4 (exterior shell), where sensitizer and emitter ions are partitioned into core and interior shell, respectively. Emitter concentration is varied (x = 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, and 80%) to investigate influence on single particle brightness, upconversion quantum yield, decay lifetimes, and FRET coupling. We compare these seven samples with the field-standard core-shell architecture of β-NaY0.58Gd0.2Yb0.2Er0.02F4 (core) @NaY0.8Gd0.2F4 (shell), with sensitizer and emitter ions codoped in the core. At a single particle level, the core-shell-shell design was up to 2-fold brighter than the standard core-shell design. Further, by coupling a fluorescent dye to the surface of the two different architectures, we demonstrated up to 8-fold improved emission enhancement with the core-shell-shell compared to the core-shell design. We show how, given proper consideration for emitter concentration, we can design a unique nanoparticle architecture to yield comparable or improved brightness and FRET coupling within a small volume

Effects of Implant Thread Geometry on Percentage of Osseointegration and Resistance to Reverse Torque in the Tibia of Rabbits

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/141256/1/jper1233.pd

Replication Study: Biomechanical remodeling of the microenvironment by stromal caveolin-1 favors tumor invasion and metastasis

As part of the Reproducibility Project: Cancer Biology we published a Registered Report (Fiering et al., 2015) that described how we intended to replicate selected experiments from the paper ‘Biomechanical remodeling of the microenvironment by stromal caveolin-1 favors tumor invasion and metastasis’ (Goetz et al., 2011). Here we report the results. Primary mouse embryonic fibroblasts (pMEFs) expressing caveolin 1 (Cav1WT) demonstrated increased extracellular matrix remodeling in vitro compared to Cav1 deficient (Cav1KO) pMEFs, similar to the original study (Goetz et al., 2011). In vivo, we found higher levels of intratumoral stroma remodeling, determined by fibronectin fiber orientation, in tumors from cancer cells co-injected with Cav1WT pMEFs compared to cancer cells only or cancer cells plus Cav1KO pMEFs, which were in the same direction as the original study (Supplemental Figure S7C; Goetz et al., 2011), but not statistically significant. Primary tumor growth was similar between conditions, like the original study (Supplemental Figure S7Ca; Goetz et al., 2011). We found metastatic burden was similar between Cav1WT and Cav1KO pMEFs, while the original study found increased metastases with Cav1WT (Figure 7C; Goetz et al., 2011); however, the duration of our in vivo experiments (45 days) were much shorter than in the study by Goetz et al. (2011) (75 days). This makes it difficult to interpret the difference between the studies as it is possible that the cells required more time to manifest the difference between treatments observed by Goetz et al. We also found a statistically significant negative correlation of intratumoral remodeling with metastatic burden, while the original study found a statistically significant positive correlation (Figure 7Cd; Goetz et al., 2011), but again there were differences between the studies in terms of the duration of the metastasis studies and the imaging approaches that could have impacted the outcomes. Finally, we report meta-analyses for each result

Maternal Behavior Potentially Affecting Offspring Survivability: a Comparison Between Meishan and Yorkshire X Landrace (YL) Sows

This study was designed to examine differences in maternal behavior between two breeds, the Meishan breed from China and the Yorkshire/Landrace (YL) cross. This was a preliminary trial aimed at gathering data to appropriately design a more extensive study. Identification of maternal behavioral contributions to piglet survivability may assist in reducing production losses caused by the sow.</p

Autonomy matters : experiential and individual differences in chosen and unchosen solitary activities from three experience sampling studies

Solitude––the absence of social interaction––can bring both positive and negative experiences. Drawing on self-determination theory, we conducted three experience sampling studies to investigate quality of experience and dispositions associated with activities varying on two dimensions––chosenness (chosen/unchosen) and social context (solitary/interactive). Participants (total N=283) completed surveys 6-7 times each day over a 7-day period (total: 8,769 surveys). Multilevel modeling confirmed that participants reported the lowest-quality momentary experiences when engaged in unchosen (vs. chosen) solitary activities. Further, individuals who spent more time on unchosen solitary activities reported lower meaning in life and satisfaction with life. Extraversion was positively associated with time spent on chosen interactive activities but negatively with chosen solitary activities. Post-hoc analyses revealed that people low (vs. high) in extraversion reported lower productivity only during unchosen interactive activities. Chosen (vs. unchosen) solitary activities seem to have a relatively benign impact on quality of experience and well-being