B853: Cost of Producing Milk in Maine: Results from the 2010 Dairy Cost of Production Survey

The present study reports on a survey conducted for the Maine Milk Commission to determine the cost of milk production for 2010. This assessment was undertaken sooner than the normal three-year update because of the difficult economic climate for dairy farms in Maine.https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/aes_bulletin/1001/thumbnail.jp

Economic Contribution of Maine’s Food Industry

Using existing state and federal data and Maine IMPLAN, a state-of-the-art economic modeling system, the authors present an overview of the economic contributions of Maine’s food industry. This includes food makers (farms, fisheries, food-processing companies) and food sellers (grocery stores, direct sales, restaurants). Each play a unique, but interconnected, role in the Maine economy and add up to significant economic impact

B851: A Comparative Analysis of Organic Dairy Farms in Maine and Vermont: Farm Financial Information from 2004 to 2006

The purpose of this bulletin is to provide an insight into the relative financial performance of organic dairy farming through the examination of three years of detailed farm financial records. Farm financial records were collected in person by trained enumerators from organic dairy operations in Maine and Vermont for the 2004–2006 production years. These farm records are complemented by surveys on farm and farmer characteristics along with farmers’ motivational interests for organic dairy production and performance satisfaction. This report, therefore, provides a rich financial perspective on the evolution of organic dairy farming performance unlike single-season surveys.https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/aes_bulletin/1003/thumbnail.jp

Word Cloud Analysis of Early Adopter No-Till Farmer Interviews

We interviewed early adopter no-till farmers in the New England region to assess why they changed tillage practices and what the perceived advantages and disadvantages of doing so were. We then generated word clouds from answers to key interview questions to convey the farmers\u27 experiences. Most of these innovators were influenced to convert to no-till by the success of other exemplary farmers. Advantages noted included reductions in production time and fuel use. The greatest perceived disadvantage was pest management issues caused by cover crop residues. Yield losses were not mentioned, and many of the farmers experienced increased yields. Our findings suggest that Extension staff can increase adoption of new production techniques by identifying and conveying experiences of key farmer leaders

Economic Contribution of Maine's Food Industry

Using existing state and federal data and Maine IMPLAN, a state-of-the-art economic modeling system, Todd Gabe, James C. McConnon Jr. and Richard Kersbergen crunch the numbers to present an overview of the economic contribution of Maine’s food industry. This includes food makers (farms, fisheries, food-processing companies) and food sellers (grocery stores, direct sales, restaurants). Each play a unique, but interconnected, role in the Maine economy and add up to significant economic impact

Economic Contribution of Maine's Food Industry

Using existing state and federal data and Maine IMPLAN, a state-of-the-art economic modeling system, Todd Gabe, James C. McConnon Jr. and Richard Kersbergen crunch the numbers to present an overview of the economic contribution of Maine’s food industry. This includes food makers (farms, fisheries, food-processing companies) and food sellers (grocery stores, direct sales, restaurants). Each play a unique, but interconnected, role in the Maine economy and add up to significant economic impact

An Evolutionarily Conserved Function of Polycomb Silences the MHC Class I Antigen Presentation Pathway and Enables Immune Evasion in Cancer.

Loss of MHC class I (MHC-I) antigen presentation in cancer cells can elicit immunotherapy resistance. A genome-wide CRISPR/Cas9 screen identified an evolutionarily conserved function of polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2) that mediates coordinated transcriptional silencing of the MHC-I antigen processing pathway (MHC-I APP), promoting evasion of T cell-mediated immunity. MHC-I APP gene promoters in MHC-I low cancers harbor bivalent activating H3K4me3 and repressive H3K27me3 histone modifications, silencing basal MHC-I expression and restricting cytokine-induced upregulation. Bivalent chromatin at MHC-I APP genes is a normal developmental process active in embryonic stem cells and maintained during neural progenitor differentiation. This physiological MHC-I silencing highlights a conserved mechanism by which cancers arising from these primitive tissues exploit PRC2 activity to enable immune evasion.Cancer Research UK Clinician Scientist Fellowship C53779/A20097 (M.L.B), Leukaemia Foundation Australia Senior Fellowship and Howard Hughes Medical Institute International Research Scholarship 55008729 (M.A.D), Peter and Julie Alston Centenary fellowship (K.D.S.), Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellowship 101835/Z/13/Z (P.J.L), Peter MacCallum Postgraduate Scholarship (C.E.S), NHMRC Postgraduate Scholarship (K.L.C.), Maddie Riewoldt's Vision 064728 (Y-C.C), Victorian Cancer Agency (E.Y.N.L), CSL Centenary fellowship (S-J.D), National Breast Cancer Foundation Fellowship ECF-17-005 (P.A.B.), Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust and NIHR Cambridge BRC (M.L.B., P.J.L), NHMRC grant 1085015, 1106444 (M.A.D) and 1128984 (M.A.D, S-J.D)

Scientific Assessment of Climate Change and Its Effects in Maine

Climate change has already made its presence known in Maine, from shorter winters and warmer summers with ocean heat waves, to stronger storms, new species showing up in our backyards and the Gulf of Maine, aquatic algal blooms, acidic ocean waters that affect shellfish, and new pests and diseases that harm our iconic forests and fisheries. The health of Maine people is also being affected by climate change, from high heat index days driving increased emergency room visits to the ravages of Lyme and other vector-borne diseases. And our economy is feeling the effects, too — with farmers trying to adapt to longer growing seasons but dealing with severe storms and late frosts, aquaculturists already adapting to a more acidic ocean, and winter sports like skiing and snowmobiling being impacted by our shrinking winter season. This is the first report from the Maine Climate Council’s Scientific and Technical Subcommittee, produced by more than 50 scientists from around the State representing Scientific and Technical Subcommittee members, other co-authors, and contributors. This report is part of the 2020 Maine Climate Action Plan. The report summarizes how climate change has already impacted Maine and how it might continue affecting our State in the future

MVA.85A Boosting of BCG and an Attenuated, phoP Deficient M. tuberculosis Vaccine Both Show Protective Efficacy Against Tuberculosis in Rhesus Macaques

BACKGROUND: Continuous high global tuberculosis (TB) mortality rates and variable vaccine efficacy of Mycobacterium bovis Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) motivate the search for better vaccine regimes. Relevant models are required to downselect the most promising vaccines entering clinical efficacy testing and to identify correlates of protection. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Here, we evaluated immunogenicity and protection against Mycobacterium tuberculosis in rhesus monkeys with two novel strategies: BCG boosted by modified vaccinia virus Ankara expressing antigen 85A (MVA.85A), and attenuated M. tuberculosis with a disrupted phoP gene (SO2) as a single-dose vaccine. Both strategies were well tolerated, and immunogenic as evidenced by induction of specific IFNgamma responses. Antigen 85A-specific IFNgamma secretion was specifically increased by MVA.85A boosting. Importantly, both MVA.85A and SO2 treatment significantly reduced pathology and chest X-ray scores upon infectious challenge with M. tuberculosis Erdman strain. MVA.85A and SO2 treatment also showed reduced average lung bacterial counts (1.0 and 1.2 log respectively, compared with 0.4 log for BCG) and significant protective effect by reduction in C-reactive protein levels, body weight loss, and decrease of erythrocyte-associated hematologic parameters (MCV, MCH, Hb, Ht) as markers of inflammatory infection, all relative to non-vaccinated controls. Lymphocyte stimulation revealed Ag85A-induced IFNgamma levels post-infection as the strongest immunocorrelate for protection (spearman's rho: -0.60). CONCLUSIONS: Both the BCG/MVA.85A prime-boost regime and the novel live attenuated, phoP deficient TB vaccine candidate SO2 showed significant protective efficacy by various parameters in rhesus macaques. Considering the phylogenetic relationship between macaque and man and the similarity in manifestations of TB disease, these data support further development of these primary and combination TB vaccine candidates