SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES: HOW SHOULD GOVERNMENT COORDINATE FARM REGULATIONS AND POLICY?

Agricultural sustainability is an evolving process ever-seeking a balance between society's economic, environmental and social demands. Governmental policy and regulations while attempting to correct adverse externalities, have at times within themselves created adverse externalities. Failures often lie within the policies themselves, but poor coordination among government agencies is also at fault. This paper outlines a number of coordination issues and attempts to show how the empowerment of communities through ecosystem management is a partial solution to environmental degradation.Environmental regulation, Government policy, Regulation, Sustainability, Ecosystem management, Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy,

An Introduction: The Effectiveness of International Law

International law today touches on nearly every aspect of our lives, from the price of practically everything we purchase, to the health of the environment that surrounds us, to our ability to communicate seamlessly worldwide. These encounters serve as daily reminders that, as Louis Henkin famously put it, “almost all nations observe almost all principles of international law and almost all of their obligations almost all of the time.” Yet at the same time, there are regular reminders that not all nations, groups, or individuals observe all principles of international law or all of their obligations all of the time. International law violations such as human rights abuses, trade law breaches, and law of armed conflict violations remain all too common

Quantifying Women's Stated Benefit–Risk Trade-Off Preferences for IBS Treatment Outcomes

Background: The Food and Drug Administration, currently, is exploring quantitative benefit–risk methods to support regulatory decision-making. A scientifically valid method for assessing patients' benefit–risk trade-off preferences is needed to compare risks and benefits in a common metric. Objectives: The study aims to quantify the maximum acceptable risk (MAR) of treatment-related adverse events (AEs) that women with diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) are willing to accept in exchange for symptom relief. Methods: Research design: A stated-choice survey was used to elicit trade-off preferences among constructed treatment profiles, each defined by symptom severity and treatment-related AEs. Symptom attributes included frequency of abdominal pain and discomfort, frequency of diarrhea, and frequency of urgency. AE attributes included frequency of mild-to-moderate constipation and the risk of four possible serious AEs. Subjects: A Web-enabled survey was administered to 589 female US residents at least 18 years of age with a self-reported diagnosis of diarrhea-predominant IBS. Measures: Preference weights and MAR were estimated using mixed-logit methods. Results: Subjects were willing to accept higher risks of serious AEs in return for treatments offering better symptom control. For an improvement from the lowest to the highest of four benefit levels, subjects were willing to tolerate a 2.65% increase in impacted-bowel risk, but only a 1.34% increase in perforated-bowel risk. Conclusions: Variation in MARs across AE types is consistent with the relative seriousness of the AEs. Stated-preference methods offer a scientifically valid approach to quantifying benefit–risk trade-off preferences that can be used to inform regulatory decision-making

ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF FUSARIUM HEAD BLIGHT IN WHEAT AND BARLEY: 1998-2000

Fusarium Head Blight (FHB), commonly known as scab, has been a severe problem for wheat and barley producers since 1993. This study provides an update of economic losses suffered by wheat and barley producers in scab-affected regions in the United States. Emphasis is placed on estimating direct and secondary economic impacts of yield and price losses suffered by wheat and barley producers from 1998 to 2000. Nine states are included in the analysis for three wheat classes. Three of the nine states were also used for the analysis of malting and feed barley. The cumulative direct economic losses from FHB in hard red spring (HRS) wheat, soft red winter (SRW) wheat, durum wheat, and barley is estimated at $870 million from 1998 through 2000. The combined direct and secondary economic losses for all the crops were estimated at$2.7 billion. Two states, North Dakota and Minnesota, account for about 55 percent of the total dollar losses.Fusarium Head Blight, scab, vomitoxin, crop losses, wheat, barley, Crop Production/Industries,

Drinking behavior in nursery pigs: Determining the accuracy between an automatic water meter versus human observers

Assimilating accurate behavioral events over a long period can be labor-intensive and relatively expensive. If an automatic device could accurately record the duration and frequency for a given behavioral event, it would be a valuable alternative to the traditional use of human observers for behavioral studies. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine the accuracy in the time spent at the waterer and the number of visits to the waterer by individually housed nursery pigs between human observers scoring video files using Observer software (OBS) and an automatic water meter Hobo (WM, control) affixed onto the waterline. Eleven PIC USA genotype gilts (22 ± 2 d of age; 6.5 ± 1.4 kg of BW) were housed individually in pens with ad libitum access to a corn-based starter ration and one nipple waterer. Behavior was collected on d 0 (day of weaning), 7, and 14 of the trial using 1 color camera positioned over 4 attached pens and a RECO-204 DVR at 1 frame per second. For the OBS method, 2 experienced observers recorded drinking behavior from the video files, which was defined as when the gilt placed her mouth over the nipple waterer. Data were analyzed using nonparametric methods and the general linear model and regression procedures in SAS. The experimental unit was the individual pen housing 1 gilt. The GLM model included the method of observation (WM vs. OBS) and time (24 h) as variables, and the gilt nested within method was used as the error term. Gilts consumed more water (P = 0.04) on d 14 than on d 0. The time of day affected (P \u3c 0.001) the number of visits and the time spent at the waterer regardless of the method. However, the OBS method underestimated (P \u3c 0.001) the number of visits to the waterer (3.48 ± 0.33 visits/h for OBS vs. 4.94 ± 0.33 for WM) and overestimated (P \u3c 0.001) the time spent at the waterer (22.6 ± 1.46 s/h for OBS vs. 13.9 ± 1.43 for WM) compared with WM. The relationship between the 2 methods for prediction of time spent at the waterer and number of visits made by the gilts was weak (R2 = 0.56 and 0.69, respectively). Collectively, these data indicate that the use of the traditional OBS method for quantifying drinking behavior in pigs can be misleading. Quantifying drinking behavior and perhaps other behavioral events via the OBS method must be more accurately validated

Assimilation of solids during ascent of magmas from the Bartoy Field of the Baikal Region, Siberia

Most investigators ascribe mare basalt magma genesis to partial melting at depths of approximately 130 to greater than 400 km within the cumulate pile deposited from a lunar magma ocean. Mare basalts share with mid-ocean ridge basalts the characteristic of relative depletion in LREE and other incompatible trace elements that arises from melting within 'used' mantle, from which crust-forming elements have already been separated. Some mare basalt types do not show the classical, La-Nd depleted mare basalt REE distributions; however, some types are isotopically heterogeneous. These differences have been ascribed to assimilation, mainly AFC-style, of KREEPy highland material overlying the source region. Might such assimilation occur during magma ascent through the KREEPy material? To gain information from a terrestrial setting on possible assimilation during ascent, we have studied a suite of Quaternary nepheline-hawalites and nepheline-mugearites from the Bartoy cinder cone complex of the Baikal Rift, Siberia. The Bartoy magmas originated from greater than 80 km deep, and erupted through thick Archean crust. We find evidence for assimilation of approximately 31 wt. percent xenocrysts of garnet, aluminous clinopyroxene, kaersutite, and olivine, all presumably from the basalt source region, but no appreciable assimilation of overlying crust, consistent with isotopic constraints. Magmatic superheat made available by rapid ascent and decomposition accounts adequately for the energy of assimilation; no accompanying fractional crystallization is required or evident