DISCUSSION: MORAL RESPONSIBILITY IN AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH

Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

FINANCIAL INTERMEDIATION IN AGRICULTURE: A SUGGESTED ANALYTICAL MODEL

Agricultural Finance,

Economics of western range resource use

This material was digitized as part of a cooperative project between the Society for Range Management and the University of Arizona Libraries.The Journal of Range Management archives are made available by the Society for Range Management and the University of Arizona Libraries. Contact [email protected] for further information.Migrated from OJS platform August 202

CASH FLOWS AND FINANCING IN TEXAS AGRICULTURE

Agricultural Finance,

Emergency Livestock Line of Credit Guarantees.

2 p

ECONOMIC AND EPIDEMIOLOGIC POLICY IMPLICATIONS OF ALTERNATIVE BOVINE BRUCELLOSIS PROGRAMS

This paper analyzes policy implications arising from the National Brucellosis Technical Commission Study. A systems simulation model was designed to estimate physical losses resulting from alternative bovine brucellosis programs. Changes in benefits, costs, level of infection and net benefits were calculated by program alternatives for determining economic and epidemiologic implications. Results indicate all alternative programs considered yield positive net benefits and reduce the prevalence of the disease. The results imply a need for further research to determine a program that is both epidemiologically and economically optimal.Livestock Production/Industries,

Investigation and analysis of new-build housing defects during the initial ten years after occupation: a learning perspective

Rapid growth in the production of new homes in the United Kingdom (UK) is putting build quality under pressure as evidenced by the increase in the number of defects. Housing associations (HAs) contribute 21% to the UK’s annual supply of new homes. HAs are experiencing the challenge of government funding cuts and rental revenue reductions. Maximising the benefit of learning from defects is recognised as being a key opportunity for HAs to help address these challenges. Learning from defects is argued as a means of reducing the persistent defect problem within UK house building, yet how HAs learn from defects is under-researched. There is also a lack of research exploring which impacts of defects are perceived as important by the key stakeholders, which has caused confusion over which types of defect HAs should focus their learning on. The aim of this research was to better understand how UK HAs, in practice, learn from past defects to reduce the prevalence of defects in future new homes. The theoretical lens for this research was organisational learning (OL). An action research approach consisting of diagnosis, action planning, action taking, action evaluation and specifying learning was adopted. Further, the principles of soft systems methodology were incorporated in the action planning phase in order to explore an ill-structured real world problem to identify desirable and feasible changes (action interventions) within a HA. Data collection consisted of questionnaires, semistructured interviews, a focus group and organisational documents. Data analysis techniques included thematic analysis and simple statistical analysis. The key findings suggested that OL can potentially reduce defects and revealed that the health and safety implications and home occupant disruption caused by defects are the priorities. OL in HAs appeared to be viewed as a secondary task which consisted of a defects management team capturing and analysing defect data to identify improvement opportunities, with a primary focus on designing out the identified defects. Opportunities for data analysis fluctuated with workload. The use of live data analysis protected against workload spikes. The key findings further enabled the development of a specific OL from defects model for HAs. The findings revealed the importance of a dual approach to learning consisting of a codification approach of designing out defects combined with a personalisation approach of networking to tackle workmanship and other defects that can’t be designed out. The practical challenges of AR were highlighted when the interventions were abandoned due to changes in key personnel, despite the changes of a live data dashboard being shown to be beneficial after implementation

Emergency Livestock Line of Credit Guarantees.

2 p

Human Factors Certification of Advanced Aviation Technologies

Proceedings of the Human Factors Certification of Advanced Aviation Technologies Conference held at the Chateau de Bonas, near Toulouse, France, 19-23 July 1993

Interactive effect of STAT6 and IL13 gene polymorphisms on eczema status: results from a longitudinal and a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Eczema is a prevalent skin disease that is mainly characterized by systemic deviation of immune response and defective epidermal barrier. Th2 cytokines, such as IL-13, and transcription factor STAT6 are key elements in the inflammatory response that characterize allergic disorders, including eczema. Previous genetic association studies showed inconsistent results for the association of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with eczema. Our aim was to investigate whether SNPs in IL13 and STAT6 genes, which share a biological pathway, have an interactive effect on eczema risk.METHODS: Data from two independent population-based studies were analyzed, namely the Isle of Wight birth cohort study (IOW; n = 1,456) and for the purpose of replication the Swansea PAPA (Poblogaeth Asthma Prifysgol Abertawe; n = 1,445) cross-sectional study. Log-binomial regressions were applied to (i) account for the interaction between IL13 (rs20541) and STAT6 (rs1059513) polymorphisms and (ii) estimate the combined effect, in terms of risk ratios (RRs), of both risk factors on the risk of eczema.RESULTS: Under a dominant genetic model, the interaction term [IL13 (rs20541) x STAT6 (rs1059513)] was statistically significant in both studies (IOW: adjusted Pinteraction = 0.046; PAPA: Pinteraction = 0.037). The assessment of the combined effect associated with having risk genotypes in both SNPs yielded a 1.52-fold increased risk of eczema in the IOW study (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.05 -- 2.20; P = 0.028) and a 2.01-fold higher risk of eczema (95% CI: 1.29 -- 3.12; P = 0.002) in the PAPA study population.CONCLUSIONS: Our study adds to the current knowledge of genetic susceptibility by demonstrating for the first time an interactive effect between SNPs in IL13 (rs20541) and STAT6 (rs1059513) on the occurrence of eczema in two independent samples. Findings of this report further support the emerging evidence that points toward the existence of genetic effects that occur via complex networks involving gene-gene interactions (epistasis)